St Martin's Church ( ()Puig-reig
'Nomenclàtor oficial de toponímia major de Catalunya'. Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat, Generalitat de Catalunya is a Romanesque church from 12th century in

Puig-reig ; ) is a municipality and town in the Comarques of Catalonia, comarca of Berguedà, Catalonia. As of 2009, the town had a population of 4,403. Atop a hill overlooking the Llobregat River, the town includes two medieval fortresses, as well as numer ...

, Spain, near the modern parochial church and the former

Puig-reig Castle ; ) is a municipality and town in the Comarques of Catalonia, comarca of Berguedà, Catalonia. As of 2009, the town had a population of 4,403. Atop a hill overlooking the Llobregat River, the town includes two medieval fortresses, as well as numer ...

Exterior

The church's construction comprises large stone blocks of various sizes, and its thick side-walls are carried by a number of side-

buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act a ...

. The exterior of the church is completely plain, without ornamentation, except at the west wall. Atop the west wall stands the bell-gable with its twin openings, and below it is the main door, which has a simple three-arch archivolt, supported in part by four columns and their capitals.

Interior

The church has a single nave, covered with a

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

and finished by a semicircular

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

. The apse vault begins as a simple- impost

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

, and is separated from the nave by a triumphal arch. At its rear is a single narrow window, vaulted with a

voussoir A voussoir ( UK: ; US: ) is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault.“Voussoir, N., Pronunciation.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7553486115. Acces ...

arch. It still contains some of its original Romanesque murals.

References

External links

* More pictures a
Sant Martí de Puig-reig, ''Art Medieval''
(in Catalan). {{Coord, 41, 58, 15, N, 1, 52, 53, E, display=title, region:ES-CT_type:landmark_source:cawiki 12th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Spain Churches in Catalonia Romanesque architecture in Catalonia Berguedà Buildings and structures in the Province of Barcelona