St. Michael of Llumes’ parish church

Abstract

Alfonso I de Aragón conquered the taifa (Moorish kingdom) of Zaragoza between 1118 and 1120. The jurisdiction of Calatayud, dated 1131, already cites the parish church of Llumes making the jurisdictional limits of the community of Calatayud. Llumes owns its name to the corruption of the term flumes, which means river. Its parish church is an interesting example of Zaragoza’s Romanesque art. It must have been built either at the second half of the 12th century or at the beginning of the 13th, according to its only nave on a single story, with semicircular apse to both the interior and the exterior, fully vaulted (half a barrel over transverse arches and an oven vault). It counts on monumental sculptures both on the facade (tympanum with pantocrator, tetramorphs and trinitary Chi-Rho) and on the triumphal arch (capitals of the escape to Egypt and St. Michael). On July 27th 1258 the Bishop of Tarazona, García Fortín, donated the parish of Llumes both to the abbot, Pedro Serrano and the Monasterio de Piedra including its tithes, dues and taxes (except for the right of visit) on condition that the monastery provided the parish with a vicar. In addition, mass had to be sung on St. Michael’s day to the memory of the bishop’s soul. In 1642 Piedra’s monks lost their right to appoint the vicar of Llumes but not the property of the church and its incomes, which they retained until the Disentailment Act.