モンフェリーのモンセラの聖堂
The Church „Sanctuary of Montserrat“ in Montferri (1925-approx. 1930, 1989-1999)
Jos Tomlow
トムローとその師でもあるフライ・オットー
ＣＥＧの第4回会議にて
Jujol’s design for a church in the Catalan village Montferri can be regarded as a clear option in favor of Gaudinism. This church design with its strict structural rules, its rational planning and sophisticated building methods respecting ecology, shows an attitude which is contradictionary to Jujol’s other works, that are definitely regarded by scholars to be examples of idiosyncratic architecture.
The fact that the church design for Montferri can be understood and analyzed on rational grounds - was the main reason behind the present project of executing the non-built parts of this church. The architect’s team consists of Prof. Joan Bassegoda Nonell, Josep-Marìa Jané Coca, Josep-Marìa Jané Casas, and Prof. Jos Tomlow as consultant.
The Montferri inhabitants conceived the idea for this church after a pilgrimage to the famous Montserrat monastery in 1922 under the direction of priest Vives. Around 1900, Catalan cities and villages were eager to build a second church, which would better suit procession liturgy than the old parish church. Such a church was a kind of popular substitute for the real pilgrim places like for instance Lourdes or St.-Peter’s in Rome.
The architect Josep-Marìa Jujol Gibert (1879-1949) was commissioned with the new church in 1925. He had worked as a collaborator of Antoni Gaudí Cornet (1852-1926) and as a free architect in Barcelona and surroundings. Jujol’s contacts with the villages of his native grounds around Tarragona grew, since his radical architecture was not appreciated very much in Barcelona. His sympathy for rural traditions and religion - and its expression in humorist and joyful pieces of art and crafts - was an integral content of his art. As a predecessor of Montferri church can be regarded Vistabella church (1917-1923), which is not far from Montferri.
Jujol’s response to the poor financial basis of Montferri church tried to accept the lowest possible budget without betraying his visionary ideas. Photographs of the building site show that the scaffolds of the arches were reduced to the minimum, some reused planks held in position with ropes. Using the reversed catenary as a form of the intrados, the arches were given an optimal structural shape. With these catenary arches Jujol had interpreted in a simplified way Gaudí’s hanging model design of the Colonia Güell church.
Innovative was the material choice for the masonry. Concrete blocks of 10 x 15 x 30 cm and „tochos“ of half thickness were regarded to be the cheapest possibility. For the blocks one could use the soil of the building site - which was a little hill near the village - for free. In the same way one used water from a newly dug cistern and so costs only came from buying and transport of cement. The big dimensions of the blocks reduced the variety of masonry bonds and thus the masons - untrained villagers - needed less control by the architect. The masonry of the vaults was worked free hand with small concrete blocks made light by adding coal ashes from trains.
Montserrat monastery has an overwhelming impact on visitors by the very nature of its surroundings, which are mountains of sawn shape (spanish ‘Montserrat’). Jujol chose to give the building itself the shape of these mountains and for this purpose many architectural elements were given a prolonged vertical proportion, like pinnacles, windows, towers and even cupolas - having the initial function of lanterns on top of the normal vaults - which were shaped like a natural mountain top. Windows were made from triangle concrete elements with a slightly asymmetric flowerform, but also with characteristics which reminds of crystals, symbols of magic light inside of a mountain.
The plan of the church shows emphasis on the center, crowned by a tower. The vaults are executed with certain openings, which add transparency to the structural scheme. Behind the altar, in heightened position, is the octagonal sanctuary chapel. Two stairs on either side lead to this chapel with its own lantern in a star-shaped vault. The rustic aspect of this church finds a magnificent expression in the way the sanctuary chapel is built over the border of the small hill with the help of big arches, leaving some lime rocks in sight.
Around 1928, after a good start based on beautiful drawings, money ran out when the side aisles were vaulted and some ribs for the central parts were executed. In a rather dramatic situation - probably partly without Jujol´s professional help - the built parts were finished hasty by Vives, leaving the centre unvaulted. The result was that Jujol sadly abandoned this commission, that had been much appreciated by him. In 1943 a heavy storm destroyed those ribs which were void of vaults and decay seemed to win over this frustrated dream of the village.
In 1984 a restoration project by Bassegoda Nonell and Jané Coca started to save the ruined torso of Montferri church from total decay and the positive results of this restoration resulted in the present continuation of the works on the basis of a scientific reconstruction. The sources for the continuation are rather few: the built parts, photographs of the building phase, scarce testimonies by villagers, and five Jujol drawings. The architect’s team discussed all building aspects and changed few technical solutions adding for instance a (small) reinforced concrete zone on top of the ribs, in this way augmenting the quantity of iron that Jujol had put between the row of blocks of the ribs.
As far as the architectural quality of the new church is concerned one can clearly discriminate between the old darkened parts and the new. One aim of the new church was to consolidate the old substance and protect it against decay. Also the beautiful site with its romantic routes, a grotto and rows of pines should deserve the same care. The visitors of the church are welcome to experience the spirit of living Gaudinism in the foot steps of Jujol.
モンフェリーの教会
Literature
Bassegoda Nonell, J., Naranjo Teixidó, M. Actualitat permanent de l’obra de Josep-M. Jujol, Valls 1995 (Catalan)
Flores, C., Gaudí, Jujol y el Modernismo Catalán, Madrid 1982 (Spanish)
Llinàs, J. (Text), J. Sarrà (Fotos), Josep-Marìa Jujol, Köln 1992 (German)
Tomlow, J., Josep Marìa Jujol - Rekonstruktion und Weiterbau der Kirche Santuari de Montserrat , Montferri, in: Deutsche Bauzeitung 5/1994, p.44-47 (German)
Tomlow, J., Bericht über die Fertigstellung der Montferri-Kirche von Josep Marìa Jujol, in: Gaudinismo - Projekte der Gaudí-Schüler Jujol und Rubió, Konzepte SFB 230 Heft 43, Universität Stuttgart, Juli 1995, p.9-276 (German)
