Photos of the St Joan de Boi Church Romanesque Fresco Art

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Photos of the St Joan de Boi Church Romanesque Fresco Art, Valle de Boi, Pyrenees Spain. Incredible medieval Catalan Fresco Paintings. Photos by photographer Paul E Williams.  (TIP – use the icons below the slideshow for thumbnail photos and info)

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Photos of the St Joan de Boi Church Romanesque Fresco Art

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San Joan de Boi is an important Romanesque church, now a museum, situated in the narrow Vall de Boí in the high Alta Ribagorca region Pyrenees, surrounded by steep mountains.

The Romanesque Churches of the Boi Valley

Each village in the Boi valley contains a virtually untouched Romanesque church. The churches are to the same design and are set in a virtually untouched rural mountain setting. The Vall de Boi group of churches is a remarkable example of an Romanesque architecture & art.

Boi Valley Untouched by History

The Arab invasion of the Iberian Peninsula never penetrated the Remote Pyrenees Boi valley, They Pyrenees valleys were exposed around the 11th century to cultural influences, brought there by merchants, by itinerant monks and by Christian pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostela. In the 11th century new cultural styles were brought into Catalonia from Italy, particularly Lombardy. This new cultural movement was late in reaching the remote Vall de Boí.

St Joan de Boi Church Layout

Dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, the building is located in the rock where the castle of Boi once stood. The church consists of three naves separated by arches. The central apse has undergone changes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the village expanded.

The gabled roof is made of a wooden frame covered with slate. To the south is a tall 12th century Romanesque bell tower decorated with Lombard arches .

St Joan de Boi Fresco Paintings

The paintings preserved at St Joan de Boi reveal a very original and icongrafic program. There is an extensive series devoted to the saints. Fresco fragment depict the stoning of St. Stephen. The style of the frescoes are unique depicting people in stylised poses, and strange mythical beasts. It is one of the largest and most unique of all the Catalan Romanesque fresco paintings.

Removal of the St Joan de Boi Fresco Paintings

Most of the paintings were taken in to the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona in 1919. The were removed using a technique known as the strappo technique. This involves removing only the topmost layer of plaster, known as the intonachino, which has absorbed the pigments, without touching the underlying arriccio layer.

The frescoes at St Joan de Boi were removed because it was feared that the paintings, like many others in the Spanish Pyrenees, would be sold and shipped to abroad.

Today the St. Joan de Boi has a copies of the original Romanesque frescoes which allows visitors to appreciate how the interior space looked when filled with vibrant Romanesque liturgical art.

San Joan de Boi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.