Not too far from the surroundings of Olleros de Pisuerga and also in the vicinity of Aguilar de Campóo, two places, barely separated by a tiny distance of five kilometers, make up another small but nevertheless interesting route, which should not be wasteful for the effort of travelers, walkers and pilgrims who wish to see works of relevance and interest and, at the same time, find added mysteries in their way: the church of San Juan Bautista, in Moarves de Ojeda and the Cistercian nun's abbey of San Pedro de Arroyo.

Possibly better known first, especially if you are familiar with part of the best Palencia Romanesque, remember, just look at its splendid cover, the agreement that exists between this and that other that, precisely under the patron Saint Santiago Boanerges, the Son of Thunder, is located in the historic and always interesting city of Carrión de los Condes.

Declared a Historical Monument in 1931, one of the details that draws attention, is the reddish color of its ashlars, in whose treatment it is assumed that the stonemasons used the technique of subjecting the stone to a bath in which they probably intervened, in a remarkable degree, compounds of purely ferrous origin.

But without a doubt, this does not stop being, in the end, but an anecdotal detail and probably irrelevant, if we compare it with the magnificent work of Art that constitutes its cover. A splendid cover, carefully elaborated even in its most minute details -such as the folds of the tunics of the main characters-, reproduced by another one that shows the church of Santiago de Carrión, nowadays converted into a museum of Sacred Art.

But that similarly introduces us, not only in the mystery of these two mirror covers-remember the singular case of the twin covers of Santa María de Eunate and San Miguel de Olcoz-but also, based on the visual impact, in the magnificent stonework workshops installed in this city, which were displaying their extraordinary art and trade throughout a leading province in the same history of the Jacobean Way.

No less significant, and full of clues that are worth warning and studying for yourself, the motives of the capitals introduce us, just without realizing it, into the old medieval myths.

Some myths, which even by themselves, lead us to continents and symbolic contingencies, with which to wander long and hard: the Stoic Samson, in his everlasting struggle with the lion; the musician and the dancer, a theme that immediately reminds us of that extraordinary stonemason known as the Master of Agüero; the small little heads, that come mocking through the forest, connected with the ancient Celtic gods, whose memory, after all, floods with references the temples that rose in their old sanctuaries.

The theme of the twins, in this case, two milites sharing a shield, which reminds us of the primitive seals of the Order of the Temple, in which two knights shared the same horse, but at the same time, forces us to look up to the sky, to those zodiacal reminiscences that make good the axiom of the ancient Hermestine wisdom: as it is above, that is how it is below ...

Open books, where religion and mancy, superstition and science go hand in hand to show subliminal messages to viewers that, even with the passage of centuries, continue to surprise us and make us think that, deep down, we are nothing but mere apprentices in the difficult path of Wisdom.

But if all these constitute fascinating enigmas, it is no less the question addressed, no longer to the identity of the authors of such a marvel, but to the origin of their origin. And possibly, we have a clue, in that fascinating and always nebulous Celtic land that is Galicia, and more specifically in one of its provinces, whose capital still carries with pride the name of the god who founded it and whose memory was hardly altered by the Roman conquest: Lugo.

Now, that's another story.

NOTICE: Originally published in my blog RECUERDOS DE UN PEREGRINO. Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry, where you can check the authorship of juancar347, can be found at the following address:https://jc347.blogspot.com/2014/07/moarves-de-ojeda-iglesia-de-san-juan.html

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[Martial, latin poet]

Ars vtinam more Animvm qve effingere. Posses pulchrior in ter. Ris nvlla tabella foret.

Arte Ojala pudieras representar. el carácter y el espíritu. No habría sobre la tierra. Imagen más bella

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