Gargolas , mythological creatures who watch from the gothic watchtowers, the silence of the great cities.Stone guardians who, according to legend, come alive on certain moonless nights, the darkest, to return to the silence of their heights just at dawn, just when the first light of the morning returns to their bodies the rock's hardness...
Today rests in the gutters of our churches and cathedrals , some figures between the fantastic and the frightening that always attracts our attention.Would you like to know more about them?
The legend of the Gargouille
The gargoyles were mythological figures very much of the taste of Gothic art .Their function was not only aesthetic, their demonic image He sought first of all two functions: to scare the people and protect the temple.We must bear in mind that all the creatures we see in the watchtowers of the cathedrals are not Gargolas, which we can see for example in the famous Notre Cathedral Give me de Paris , they are Chimeras, not Gargolas, another legendary specimen or equally impressive.
But yes, the Gargouille is undoubtedly the most representative figure of this historical period due to a French legend that gave it shape and transcendence.It was said that there was a creature similar to a dragon that lived in the waters of the Seine , a being called Gargouille.He had a long neck, strong jaws and scaly skin, a being of bad temper capable of swallowing whole ships, and spitting water through his mouth, producing fearsome floods in the Parisian city.It was perhaps a type of aquatic dragon .
It was said that the inhabitants of the nearby Rouen tried to calm their anger offering him once a year, a human offering: the worst criminal they could find.But unfortunately that kind of sacrifice was not to the taste of Gargouille, she, prefe Maidens laugh.
It was in the year 600 when a Christian priest named Romanus made a pact with the strange being.He would build a church, the most beautiful.The Gargouille accepted, but the ingenious priest raised a cathedral dedicated to Catholic worship, an immense cathedral with a large bell.An instrument that served to hypnotize the creature.Before each bell ring , the being advanced to the , little by little, captivated by that shocking sound.
Finally, equipped with a book, a candle and a cross, the priest performed an exorcism, then burned the creature in a bonfire, leaving only his mouth and neck that, curiously, did not burn in the fire.At this detail the inhabitants decided to upload their remains to the town hall, as a reminder of the bad times that had happened.
A dark art
Usually the Gargolas appear in the highs of the cathedrals in group There is never a single one.Their faces always look horrible and menacing, dark creatures who watch us from above with an ironic grin, and whose function is always to spit the building's water through their mouths.
From the XIII to the XV century , their faces were always malevolent, but with the arrival of the Baroque their malignancy was softened to appear a little more « comic.”But that sinister tone never completely disappeared from his features, figures that were not only common in churches and cathedrals, but could also be seen on the roofs of secular buildings and private houses.
Silent creatures that reside in the heights of our old Gothic constructions , those beings that we love to look for through the objective of our cameras to capture their sinister looks, their stone wings...those that, according to legend, come alive in the dark nights to fly over the cities they watch daily.
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