Within, Around, Between: Micro Pilgrimage and the Archivolted Portal.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries western France and northern Spain were dotted with churches that shared a portal configuration comprised of a set of concentric, inwardly stepped archivolts, surrounding a tympanum-less entry. Developed in the early stages of the Reconquest, the form was a visual compression of the segmented barrel vaults of the nave, producing a porch-like space that served to prolong the act of entry and define a liminal zone where the journey from the external, secular world into the interior sacred space replicated on a micro level the macro tenants of pilgrimage. Described as a sequenced and layered experience that is both 'betwixt and between', both micro and macro journeys were meant to engender a metaphysical transition, if not a spiritual transformation. Used to define the parameters of a monastic domain, these parishes were linked to the abbey by way of circular processions that began and ended at the similarly archivolted portal of the monastic chapel. The stage-like podium of this configuration provided a dramatic backdrop for liturgical ritual, while the intra-parish movement multiplied its emotional effect in the same way the miraculous events of a pilgrimage were meant to build to a climactic event and inspire spiritual revelation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]