Façade ou façades romanes? [Discours de clôture

Abstract

The paper begins with a comparison between the Carolingian opus occidentale at Corvey and the façade of the Romanesque pilgrimage church at Borgo San Donnino in order to show the contrast between an early medieval abbey church which seems closed at its Western end and a sanctuary from the twelfth century which invites the pilgrims to enter. Romanesque façades cannot be successfully studied without taking into consideration their original context : history, local topography and liturgy. There exists no unified type of the Romanesque façade in Europe. Bulky Western towers or closed Western fronts survive right in the thirteenth century especially in the Empire. Also in the Empire the persistance of the groundplan with a double choir excludes the construction of a Western façade. Local topography fixes the placement of the main entrances to the great sanctuaries, to the tomb of the saints, often outside the Western façade. Examples are the cathedral at Santiago of Compostela or Saint-Sernin at Toulouse. In the Romanesque period the central part of the entrance into the church becomes the figure-portal with an elaborated iconographie program addressing the faithful and the pilgrims. But such portals are often found not on the exterior façade but in the interior of a narthex (Cluny, Vézelay). Portals could serve different functions : they could be stations for monastic processions, they could enhance the access to a great relic but also overshadow a cemetery as at Autun. In the light of these examples, differences and deviations the screen-façades of Western France, which are perhaps the most perfect examples of an ideal Romanesque façade, must be rather regarded as a splendid exception.