Church of San Pelayo. Ayega (Valle de Mena, Burgos)
It seems that in the tenth century a monastery was built, as it did in other parts of the valley and passed hand to lay religious.
the Roman church, built between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in the opinion of different authors, maintained and dedicated to St. Pelayo and retains few elements of the original factory: the header, some corbels and cover with a curious ear drum. The interior housed the Salazar family vault.
The eardrum is the most curious part of the cover. The figures carved on it have been interpreted in various ways, but the most convincing agree that it would be a representation of the struggle between opposites and, specifically, between good and evil. To the left of the semicircle we find a character who undergoes a lion (¿Samson?), While to the right a monstrous animal devours its victim. In between, four characters standing cross their hands in her lap. Above these seven figures angelic placed trace very simple. Jose Manuel Rodriguez Montanes in the Encyclopedia of Romanesque, tells us about “on these figures were placed other earthly angels, creating a double opposition, in the longitudinal plane, between the victory of faith over the devil and the punishment of sinner and in the vertical between the earthly and the divine. “
The lintel on supporting the tympanum (figure 5) has, on its front the following inscription: EGO (S) U (M) EP (L) AGIU (S) Corduba, or “I am Pelayo de Cordoba”, a reference to the martyr Cordoba who holds title to the temple. www.romanicoenruta.com/
(Translation from spanish by Google)
![The megalithic complex of Ħaġar Qim is located atop a hill on the southern edge of the island of Malta, on a ridge capped in soft globigerina limestone. All exposed rock on the island was deposited during the Oligocene and Miocene periods of geological time. Globigerina limestone is the second oldest rock on Malta, outcropping over approximately 70% of the area of the islands.[9] The builders used this stone throughout the temple architecture.[10]
The temple’s façade is characterized by a trilithon entrance, outer bench and orthostats. It has a wide forecourt with a retaining wall and a passage runs through the middle of the building,[7] following a modifiedMaltese megalithic design.[1] A separate entrance gives access to four independent enclosures which replace the north-westerly apse.[11]
Features of temple architecture reveal a preoccupation with providing accommodation for animal sacrifices, burnt offerings and ritual oracles.[12] Recesses were used as depositories for sacrificial remains.Excavation has uncovered numerous statuettes of deities and highly decorated pottery.[12]
A 1776 engraving of Ħaġar Qim by Jean-Pierre Houël
No burials exist in the temple or the area surrounding Ħaġar Qim, nor have any human bones been discovered in Maltese temples.[13] Bones of numerous sacrificial animals have been found.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lup6tlQmlL1qacehho1_500.jpg)
![Flesh and stone were the two great influences on Max Dupain’s vision. From his earliest photographs he strove to transform the naked human body into something resembling the marble forms of antiquity. Women, especially, were often rendered as triumphantly sensual yet naturalistic, as if the sculptor Bernini had suddenly picked up a camera.
As the pre-eminent photographer of Australian architecture for more than half a century, Dupain found sensual shapes hidden within the geometry of concrete, steel and glass.
“I stress … simplicity and directness [and] reduction of the subject to … symbolic terms … I want to extract every ounce … from any exciting form. I want to give life to the inanimate,” he wrote in 1976.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqd1ny3ecr1qacehho1_400.jpg)
