Tarragona cathedral

Tarragona, because of it's importance in the Roman period, was one of the first centers of Christianity on the Iberian peninsula. The Cathedral complex was pretty Gothic, which usually doesn't turn me on too much, and at some points inside I got kind of bored, but there were some neat details that I'll share in this post.

a very toothy lion rainspout

These reminded me a lot of the work of Peter Rockwell (Norman's son) who does fanciful, but very good sculpture -- these are nice precedents, because they're playful and historically minded, like his work also is -- except that these are much older!

The interior of the cloister. Orange and cypress trees. Ahhh, the Mediterranean.

the forthrightness of saintly attributes: Saint Lucy

One of the patrons of Catalunya is Saint George (Sant Jordi) -- this was in the sacristy.
The grin on the saint's face is rather smug: take that, devil.

This was so fascinating to me, not so much for the subject, which is not so unique, but rather the materials. These are polychromatic stone sculptures, and of course the sarcophagus Jesus is lying on prominently features a Pagan motif, and is in fact Roman. I also found the two Medievally-dressed male figures kind of out of place -- I'd assume they are Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, just dressed 1000 years into the future.