As we already mentioned when talking about the church of Santa María de Eunate, in the nearby village of Olcoz there is a church with a portico practically identical to the first one. This fact, unprecedented in Romanesque art, has given rise to various legends. Here we will tell one of them.
According to what is said, the portico of Santa María de Eunate was entrusted to a master stonemason member of the Templar order, who, after leaving the work very advanced, had to be absent for unexplained reasons. The church managers commissioned another local master to finish the portico, which he accomplished in just three days (according to some accounts, this second stonemason would be a giant, which would explain a lot, as we'll see later).
Upon his return, the original master stonemason protested angrily at what he considered an encroachment on his work, to which the local authorities challenged him to build an identical portico in the time his replacement had taken. Faced with such a task, the teacher had no choice but to resort to magic.
(Photos courtesy of TaxNavarra).
It was the eve of San Juan. Following indications of a witch who lived next to the nearby Nekeas River, the teacher positioned himself in a pool next to the river bank and waited, until an enormous snake appeared that left a moonstone on the bank that it hid in its mouth. The master waited until the serpent had plunged into the river, picked up the stone, and ran to the twin unhewn portico that was already erected in front of Eunate. He introduced the stone into a chalice filled with water from the Nekeas River, placed it under the portico...
…And when the moon reached its zenith, the stone began to shape itself, forming on it all the sculptures that can be seen in it, only in an inverted way. The next morning the work was finished. The only problem happened when the second master stonemason was notified. Seeing the copy made in a single night, he was enraged to such an extent that he kicked the new cover, which flew to its current location in Olcoz.
And indeed, if we examine the portico of the Olcoz church, we will see that it is almost identical to that of Eunate, but inverted.
