In the times when Etxano was built, ancestral, pagan feasts were still being celebrated. Many of these feasts, such as Shrovetide, were assimilated after the Roman colonization and barely accepted by the Catholic Church. Some of the elements of that feast are illustrated in the main façade and in some of the carved corbels of the Church of San Pedro ad Víncula, in Etxano.
However, the Church of Etxano is not a mere representation of a feast, as it also tells us about the knowledge they had at that time on medicine and cabbala. There are references to several pagan gods. Moreover, if you dare digging deeper into its secrets, you may find a comprehensive treaty on alchemy concealed among its stones. However, you will not find the ruins of the palace to which the church was annexed, as there is nothing left of it.
All these facts make the Church of Etxano special and unique in Europe, as at the time it was built, the iconography and paintings in churches dealt with religious subjects or vices and virtues and their corresponding rewards and punishments.
Who could possibly order the building of a church that broke all the rules, in the mid 12th Century? Most probably it was someone who held a high position within the Church, with a vast knowledge on classic culture and the Islamic world, who rebelled against its own doctrine due to some negative event.
The name of the consigner who ordered the building of the Church of Etxano is still an unsolved enigma. However, the same efforts and persistence that have allowed us to look at this church leaving aside the prejudices created with the passing of centuries, may also allow us to find out the name of this unknown Lord of Etxano, who left this mysterious treasure in the heart of Valdorba.
Main façade: Shrovetide celebrations. They are disguised in odd garments and have curious hairdos and beards.
Number 10 is always present in Etxano (it is the perfect number according to Pythagoras' Tetraktys, and it plays an essential role in the Romanesque Cathedral of Chartres). If we count all the carved corbels, we get 37, that is, 3+7=10. If we count the little bolls in the corbel in the picture, the total number is 64, 6+4=10. We invite you to find more combinations of number 10 which are concealed in the corbels.
Over the main façade we find number 10 again, as there are 10 carved corbels in the eaves. Among the corbels there are four sitting characters representing the Four Tempers: choleric, sanguine, melancholic and phlegmatic. It is a summary of the philosophical and medical knowledge of the time.
A lion is regurgitating a man with a hint of a smile in his mouth, who holds a roller with both hands. A snake is coming out from his right ear and is heading for the lion's ear. In its turn, a demiurgical dragon with ears and a sticking out tongue is coming out from the lion's left ear and is heading for the man's right ear. The lion usually represents the Sun, Christ, God...etc. The snake is a telluric animal that sometimes represents the soul escaping the body. The demiurge usually represents divine power, spiritual blow, the giver of life. All in all, it is the only carved corbel that has managed to represent death and resurrection to a new initiatic life.
The vaults in the inside are slightly pointed and it seems that there was a dome of which only the base is left. There are two historiated capitals that keep a mysterious secret and which are in an unusual place: the furthest section of the church.
The first 6 carved corbels of the North façade represent a playful and cheerful feast with fertility rites that reminds of the excesses of Shrovetide: drink, profane music, sex and performances.
Text by: Asociación para el Desarrollo de Valdorba
Pictures by: Andrés Ortega