Oloriz - San Pedro de Echano

San Pedro de Echano (aka "Ermita de San Pedro de Echano") is not easy to find, as the church is a few kilometers east of Oloriz in the middle of fields and bushland. In medieval times, when the church got erected, there might have been a village or settlement nearby, but nowadays there are no houses near to the church. The place is abandoned.

Under the roof of San Pedro de Echano are more than 30 carved corbels. Some of the sculptures are really unusual, but the most impressing is the southern portal of San Pedro de Echano.

There are seven archivolts!

It is strange, that a small, single nave church got such a large and impressive portal. I connect this to - the pilgrims walking the camino. San Pedro de Echano is about 8kms south of the Via Tolosana/Camino Aragonés that I had just walked. Olcoz and Eunate are only about a two hours walk away.

The most interesting archivolt depicts 25 people sitting on a table and having a party (?). The composition reminds strongly on the "Elders of the Apocalypse", but the characters are obviously performing a kind of game.

Legs and feet of the partiers visible, as the artist carved on both sides of the archivolt. On the right side of the hornblower is a person with two hands, two feet and two heads. Siamese twins?