ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a single, significant shift in San Quirce’s Romanesque plan, a modification that reveals the thoughts and ambitions of the building’s otherwise undocumented monastic community. The Romanesque church of San Quirce de Burgos once formed part of a rural monastery nestled amongst some of Castile’s most powerful medieval institutions. A close examination of the masonry of San Quirce’s east end is useful for highlighting and dating the significant change in concept that took place decades later in other portions of the building. San Quirce and Fromista sought a common solution to a common problem: vaulting a square space with a dome. The conceptual and practical shift that took place at San Quirce between the last decade of the eleventh century and the first third of the twelfth has been overlooked even by scholars who recognized multiple building phases in the changing sculptural styles.
