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, humble, single nave church got such an impressive (somehow oversized) portal. This may be connected 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.

This is the most interesting archivolt. 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. Some have their hands (long fingers!) in the air. To the very left a musician, playing a kind of flute. The partiers do not have an upper body, just oval faces, unusual hairdos/beards and arms/hands.