5 STAR HOTELS IN DUSSELDORF

Santa Maria de Eunate es una iglesia romanica ubicada en campo libre, a 2 km. de Muruzabal, en Navarra, Espana. Se halla en el lugar donde se juntan los Caminos de Santiago de Somport y de Roncesvalles.

La iglesia fue construida en estilo Romanico en la segunda mitad del siglo XII. Como esta lejos de un pueblo y se han encontrado vieiras (atributo tradicional de la peregrinacion jacobea) en las tumbas que se hallan en la iglesia, se opina que fue un hospicio para los peregrinos.

El conjunto es de planta octogonal y esta rodeado por una galeria porticada de 33 arcos, con capiteles decorados. La armonia de la planta octogonal queda rota por un abside pentagonal y una torreta de planta cuadrada adosada al lado de la Epistola. En los muros exteriores se alternan ventanas caladas y ciegas y dos puertas de acceso, la del norte ante el Camino, muy decorada, y otra de mas sencilla hacia poniente.

La originalidad de la concepcion arquitectonica de este templo y su situacion aislada han llamado mucho la atencion de visitantes y estudiosos. La planta centralizada, aunque conocida, no fue demasiado usual en el Romanico hispano; existen ejemplos como la iglesia de san Marcos de Salamanca (circular) o la Vera Cruz en Segovia (decagonal), pero sustancialmente diferentes al edificio que nos ocupa. La construccion mas semejante, cercana ademas a Santa Maria de Eunate, es la iglesia de Torres del Rio, tambien en Navarra. Ambos edificios comparten formas muy similares, aunque en la ultima falta la galeria de arcos de Eunate, que constituye una rareza verdaderamente excepcional. Todos estos edificios citados han sido relacionados con ciertos grupos a los que se les suponen practicas o ceremonias particulares, como los Templarios. Lo cierto es que el octogono, forma basica de la planta de Eunate, reune simbolismos muy antiguos; el numero ocho era el simbolo de la resurreccion para los judios, y edificios con forma octogonal fueron usuales en el arte paleocristiano y bizantino.


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The Church of Saint Mary of Eunate is a 12th century Romanesque church located about 2 km south-east of Muruzabal, Navarre, Spain, on the Way of Saint James. Its origins are discussed due to lack of documentation. Its octagonal plan and the fact that it is not located in a present-day village or town but in countryside contribute to its enigmatic nature.

The church is built of dressed stone, its plan is a slightly irregular octagon with a little three-side apse. It presents the typical architectural features of the European Romanesque art (dressed-stone masonry, robust walls, semicircular arches, little windows made of alabaster, etc.) as well as some other local characteristics of the Romanesque in Navarre and Aragon, like the chessboard-shape decoration.

Its eight walls sustain an eight-rib vault, inspired in Cordova's caliphate art. This structure is very similar to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Torres del Rio, Navarre, 55 km far from Eunate and also on the Way of Saint James. The whole building is surrounded by arches that had been recently partially reconstructed. It is not sure that those arches were built at the same time that the church. It may be built centuries later using rests of a hypothetical disappeared cloister.

Today the church is a hermitage dedicated to the Virgin Mary and people from all the Valdizarbe valley use to celebrate there a traditional romeria. This function is the only unquestionable known use of the building as it is the only that is documented. The early documented reference to Eunate dates from 1487 and refers to a sodality devoted to the Virgin of Eunate. Nevertheless, the characteristics of the building, its location on the Way of Saint James and the comparison with other coetaneous religious buildings demands further explanation about the origin of the church.

Since late 19th century, there have been several theories about the original function and authorship of Eunate. Due to its octagonal plan, the first theories stated that Eunate was a Templar church, related with other central plan churches like the above mentioned Holy Sepulchre of Torres del Rio, and undoubtedly Templar buildings like the Templar convent of Tomar, the Temple Church of London or the Holy Sepulchre of Pisa, all of them inspired in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. This alleged Templar origin and the aura of mystery that surrounds the church have contributed to esoteric interpretations. Nevertheless, the presence of Knights Templar in this zone of Navarre is not documented, but it is very well known the importance of other military order, the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem or Knights Hospitaller, that could hold a hospital ('hostel') for pilgrims to Santiago. Archaeological excavations have found many burials and the typical St. James' shells.

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Santa Maria de Eunate ist ei

The Musee de Cluny is a museum in Paris housing a collection of art from the Middle Ages: the Musee National du Moyen Age.

The museum stands on the site of a Roman baths complex (called the Thermes de Cluny). The building seen in this picture was built in the 15th-16th century as the Hotel de Cluny for abbot Jacques d'Amboise of the Cluniac monastic order. It replaced the original Hotel de Cluny which was built in the 14th century.

The courtyard is decorated in the Flamboyant Gothic style. The sundial and heraldic mottos seen here are part of the decoration on the octagonal tower.

The motto on the left reads "Servire Deo Regnare Est" (Latin meaning "to serve God is to reign"). The motto in the centre of the sundial reads "Nil Sine Nobis" (Latin meaning "nothing without us"). I have not been able to read the motto at the top.

The scallop shells surrounding the mottos symbolise the pilgrimage to the shrine of St James in Compostela, Spain (the Camino de Santiago), the route to which began near the Hotel de Cluny.