The Crusades and church art in the era of Las Navas de Tolosa

Abstract

The art and architecture of Romanesque churches provided for fascinating manifestations of «crusade ideology» in the Iberian Peninsula during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Scenes of combat, imitations of the Holy Sepulcher, and grand eschatological visions of Christian triumph all appeared in church décor. This phenomenon is beautifully exhibited in two churches in the city of Toledo, in which the victory of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) is celebrated with vivid apocalyptic imagery and inscriptions. However, the same churches incorporate Islamic artistic styles as well, indicating the complexity of holy war in the cultural world of medieval Spain.