Besides testimony from a former occupation of the medieval village has documentary evidence from the tenth century, particularly since the year 938, in relation to a property donated here at the Cathedral of Astorga. Organized the village on the southern slope of the hill, around the parishes of San Miguel, San Esteban and San Pedro. These nuclei formed and separate quarters from their origins, together with the monasteries of Santa Marina de Valverde, San Martín y Cabeza de Alba formed a complex network of dispersed settlement, guarded all this from above by Castro and his castle.
The church of San Esteban de Corullón is one of the jewels of the Roman town, on a par with his partner of San Miguel. Both temples are BIC (Cultural Property) since 1931.
San Esteban is located at the bottom of the hillside leading down to the plain of Burbia. Its sleek, slender tower attached to the feet, is the most powerful and striking of all his works. According
has been described by several authors, certain stylistic and iconographic features that temple in affinity with the early Romanesque St. James. In fact, his small home has a very pronounced relationship with Platerías facade of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, work usually dated to 1103. Other views, however, put the work of San Esteban late in the twelfth century. Very notable is its collection of trim under the eaves corbels, some of them clearly sexual themes. Testimony
faithful of the origins of San Esteban de Corullón is an inscription embedded in the north face of the graceful tower. It is located at a considerable height on one of the archways that lead access to the western porch. His interest, like so many medieval epigraphic documents, is to provide very precise information on the timing and the circumstances surrounding the founding of this temple.
support material is an irregularly shaped gray marble. The piece is almost complete, except some of the characters from the left edge unreadable today for a broken winding court. May have contributed to this recent grouting with cement, spread throughout the masonry wall. The inscription was reviewed at some point with an ink ocher, which remains mostly visible in some sectors. The condition is quite acceptable, with occasional signs of wear of the stone.
In the upper right oblique cut of the stone is the main remarkable anomaly, but this did not affect the reading, since it was taken into account when to accommodate the seven lines of the inscription to the irregular shape of the field epigraphic.
The previous work was properly prepared and enclosed. The head of the ordinatio be helped guide lines to set the height of the letters and sort text indention, achieving a harmonious aesthetic effect and a uniform font size. Remains of traces of this pattern is clearly seen at the right edge registration.
The ductus is clear and elegant, although some of the characters used were already branded as "something strange" by Gomez Moreno, as is the case of "E" shaped cross or the particular feature of the curve " T ". In fact the latter is a version of the "T" Visigothic so common in early medieval Leonese headings. The bonds or bonds of common features in the letters are used relatively frequently. The separation of words is done by three points interpunción, employees in a fairly arbitrary.
Reading, once developed, abbreviations, is:
[I] NN (O) M (IN) E: D (OMI) NI: N (O) S (TR) I: I(ES)HV : X(H)P(IST)I : ET IN HONORE :
S(AN)C(T)I : S(T)EPHANI : SACRATVUS : EST : LOCVS ISTE : AB EP(ISCOP)O
[A]STORICE(N)SE : N(O)M(IN)E : OSMVNDO : IN ERA : CENTIES :
[D]ENA : ET : BIS : QUINQVAGENA : ATQVE : DVO DENA
ET : IIII : Q(VO)TUM XVII K(ALENDAS) I(A)N(UA)RII : P(ER) MAN(V)S DE PETRO: MONINCI : ET PRESBITER
[C]VIS : ORIGO ERAT POSTEA : AD ANNOS : VII : EIECIT : EAM ET
A FVNDAMENTO : CONSTRVXIT : ET IN ALIOS : VII : FVIT : PERFECTA
La lectura de nuestro epígrafe no ha presentado muchas dificultades a cuantos se han ocupado de él, al menos en lo que se refiere a su datación and general aspects. Enrique Flórez and offered a full transcript in Volume XVI of his "Sacred Spain, which has served as the basis for other authors.
Major inconveniences had the final line interpretation of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh: "ET PR / VIS [...] ORIGO ERAT. Flórez himself proposed development as "CVIS ORIGO ERAT Patris." "... And so the letters PR of registration, after Petro Moninci per manus. Et Pr Patris et else seems to denote that it was superfluous pesbyteri copulative in this regard. The Father seems was a native of that place, as origo cujus erat expression (CVIS by CVIVS). "
A Quadrado, in their memories and beauty of Spain, it seems more meaningful "PARVIS ORIGO ERAT ET", an interpretation that also seems to admit Gómez Moreno. More recently María Concepción Alonso Cosmen proposed a diametrically opposed reading, doing "home" a proper name and, therefore, translating: "... and which (church) was a priest Origo.
The question of chronology has not offered, however, many difficulties. There is consensus to date the consecration of the first church on December 16, 1086. After seven years was demolished, "eicit", then was rebuilt from the ground, "a foundation constrvxit" another seven years and concluded: "fvit perfect." Therefore, the construction of the Romanesque building should be between the years 1093 to 1100. We are in a section directly related to other activity relating to the founding of Bishop Osmundo Bierzo, such as Down Tombrío (October 2, 1082) and San Martín de Piero (November 19, 1086). In the interval 1086-1100
we have some additional news that indicates that the parish of San Esteban has legal personality and is the center of a neighborhood or snack. In 1096 Eriz Elvira, wife of Nuño García, donated to the church of Astorga, Osmundo his bishop and his clergy, an estate in Corullón: "Under the bells of St. Stephen", territory of Bierzo, in the place called Ríu. That property had been obtained by the donor through a swap with some Moni Petriz.
Some years later, the promoter of the foundation gave the temple Asturicense headquarters. On August 12, 1124. Pedro Moniuz donated to the church and its bishop Alo Astorga: "the inheritance that is founded the Church of San Esteban in the village of Corullón, with their houses and lands of arable land and dress it, vines, trees, mountains and solar and express the boundaries of that property, which one is with Moniuz Zemen, another and another Nuño Rodrigo Alvarez Strong ". This diploma, and previous, we retain only brief excerpts. However, Flórez hit to read the full text, adding some details about its contents: " Moniuz Peter himself, who founded the Church, donated the cathedral and its bishop Alon in the year 1124, as shown in the writing of White Tumbo fol. 103, where it is entitled Presbyter, but "famulus et servus Dei, Audiens dicere in the Gospel," whose voice is more suited Audiens lego that priest. "
On all these issues should be some clarification. The possibility that "origin" may be a anthroponym rather than a common name is remote. Of course, not present in the documentation of the cathedral of Astorga, nor pity in Leon diplomatic very large collections, such as the cathedral of León and the monastery of Sahagún.
On the contrary, several arguments are in line to develop "pr" and "presbytery", always in relation to the said Petrus Moninci. According Quadrado, our enrollment by low figure and there was a supplementary section, today all missing: "Below is a figure of a priest with a book in his hand which is written: Petrus Munnioci qt pr. Jussit hoc opus facere. "
The existence of this explanatio confirmed by some handwritten notes that Augusto Quintana Prieto had a copy of the work of Flórez: " another stone in the same church and reads while PETRUS MO / NNIN ET / PR. JUSSIT / HOC OPUS Facer ". Gómez Moreno did not see any of this, but echoed the popular tradition: "The figure of Pedro Muñoz, with his name, saw Quadrado below, there, and he had another, like a dog at his side, and is commonly said to represent "the fame and the venue." Finally, the relief of the stoning of St. Stephen embedded in the wall of the presbytery can read an inscription on the halo the saint with the word "clergy", abbreviated as "PRI." It's funny how the representation of this character coincides almost exactly with the figure seen by the tower Quadrado: "a figure of a priest with a book in hand," which would suggest that perhaps was there before moving to the parsonage, but the rest of the details, however, do not match. Still visible are the tracks left by at least two pieces embedded in the south side of the tower in the gap between enrollment and the arch of the porch. Therefore
is controversial sentence should be developed as "ET presbyopic [C] VIS ORIGO ERAT. The word "source" is the usual translation of "origin" and "principle" but also as "patriarch", "ancestor" or "founder", the founder in this case from our first priest of the temple itself. This character has been identified as an alleged brother of Jim Muniz, the famous lover or "friend" berciana of Alfonso VI.
A full translation of the caption could be:
"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in honor of St. Stephen was consecrated this place by the bishop of Astorga, Osmundo name in MCXXIIII was the 17th of the Kalends of January by Pedro Muñiz hand, and whose founder was a priest, seven years later and knocked it from the ground up and built it in seven years was completed.
