Iglesia de San Juan de Puerta Nueva

IGLESIA DE SAN JUAN DE PUERTA NUEVA, ZAMORA

This Romanesque church was built in the second half of the 12th century and part of the following century, next to the so-called Porta Nova, the easternmost of the first walled enclosure of the city of Zamora, opened in 1171 to communicate the primitive enclosure with the suburb. The proximity of this gate led to this church being known by the title of San Juan de Puerta Nueva.

The southern doorway has archivolts decorated with octopetal flowers related to the northern doorway of San Martín de Salamanca and other simple plant motifs resting on capitals and elegantly crafted semi-columns that evoke the lower crypt of the Pórtico de la Gloria in Santiago de Compostela. Above the southern doorway, the wall is pierced with a beautiful, finely carved rose window.

Towards the west, there is another Gothic doorway that has been greatly reconstructed, with a large openwork window.

The three original naves were reduced to a single nave after 1564, when the building was badly damaged by the collapse of the tower in 1559. Two large former arches support a simple coffered ceiling.

The three chapels of the chancel are covered with 16th-century ribbed vaults, and above the main chapel itself stands an apparent tower, freed of terraced houses during the 1980s, and crowned by a replica of the weather vane of the Peromato (a warrior forged in 1642 and protected by a late 16th-century armour, the original of which is in the Museum of Zamora).

Information obtained from https://turismo-zamora.com/iglesia-de-san-juan-de-puerta-nueva.html and from https://www.diocesisdezamora.es/monumentos/ver-monumento-iglesia-de-san-juan-bautista-3.