Cosmonaut at the cathedral in spain. An alien on an ancient temple. Why is the figure of an astronaut depicted on the cathedral? Pharaohs had tanks and submarines

Mysteries of the past constantly surprise people, here is the astronaut at the Cathedral of St. Jerome, another mystery that came from the past. Meet the astronaut at the temple who came to us from the past.

On the wall of the Cathedral of St. Jerome in the Spanish city of Salamanca, among other decorations, there is a very curious and mysterious high relief that came to us from the past, which still causes bewilderment and confusion among scientists around the world. The fact is that medieval masters depicted on it ... an astronaut in a modern spacesuit.

The skillfully carved stone figure on the temple of Jerome impresses with the accuracy of all the details. On the chest of the "cosmonaut" there is a certain device, from which hoses go behind his back, very similar to a breathing apparatus, and his feet are shod in boots with thick corrugated soles. Such an image would be common in the 20th century, but the cathedral is almost a thousand years old! How could the builders of the temple know what the future conquerors of space would look like?

Skeptics may say that the figure could have been added during the last restoration of St. Jerome's Cathedral in 1990, and this version is diligently supported by the temple administration in order to protect their temple from the increased interest of tourists and the press. However, the cathedral has long been under the protection of UNESCO, and all restoration work with documentation on them is subject to strict control. In such a situation, not a single restorer would dare to “joke” in this way by sculpting an astronaut. In addition, such liberties are strictly pursued by the laws of the Catholic Church.

The churchmen themselves believe that the astronaut is not a mystery of the past, but simply one of the monsters that very often decorated the outer walls of cathedrals in the Middle Ages, for example, it is enough to recall the famous gargoyles on Notre Dame de Paris. Such monsters are called, on the one hand, to protect the temple, and on the other hand, to show the parishioners what horrors can await a person outside the walls of the sacred monastery.

Scientists, however, believe that the “cosmonaut” could have appeared on the wall of the Cathedral of St. Jerome, if not in the Middle Ages, then at the latest, during the last restructuring of the temple in the 18th century. Even if this is so, from the gallant age to the era of the conquest of space is still very far away. The venerable age of the figure of the astronaut on the temple is also confirmed by the fact that ancient engravings of the early 19th century were found in the library of one of the universities, where it is clearly visible and located in the same place as today.

Medieval manuscripts have survived that mention the mysterious meeting of monks with very unusual creatures, "the skin of which was hidden under the outer skin." What kind of creatures these were can only be guessed, but then it becomes clear the desire of the church ministers to leave a memory of such strange events, and possibly warn posterity about some unknown danger.

Be that as it may, the “cosmonaut” still keeps his secret and remains the main mystery of the past, calmly observing the bustle of the modern world from the height of the cathedral wall of St. Jerome. I would like to hope that one day this riddle will be solved, and we will find out what secret knowledge was available to people in the “dark”, in our opinion, Middle Ages.

Yesterday I watched a TuHistory channel film about mysterious objects from another time. One of the stories tells about a strange bas-relief on the wall of the Cathedral in Salamanca.

I have never been to Salamanca, but it is known that there are 2 magnificent cathedrals there. The New Cathedral adjoins the Old one (12th-14th centuries) and this New Cathedral is also not that new, it was built 2 centuries between 1513 and 1733. And at the entrance to the New Cathedral, among the small figures of bas-reliefs, something strange was found.

In the left row there is a figure resembling an astronaut, and in the right row there is a monkey with ice cream. Well, if the monkey can still somehow be represented as a demon with a strange object in his hand, then the astronaut cannot be interpreted otherwise. What could this mean? How could a 16th-century sculptor depict an astronaut's costume in such detail? Was there time travel? Dream of the future? Aliens of extraterrestrial civilizations?

Interested in the transfer, I looked at the materials on the Internet, including on the turbine.
Here on the site, at least 3 authors have written about this phenomenon, although their notes have not attracted much attention.
Two weeks in Spain. Part 5: Salamanca

Salamanca city-university, city-church...
I use photos from these notes to illustrate my thoughts.

Well, if a monkey with ice cream can be imagined as a demon with a torch, then the astronaut does not look like a demon at all. Let's take a closer look at the astronaut. His helmet, hoses, mud-tread boots are clearly from our era.

Of course, demons, chimeras and other evil spirits were depicted outside the cathedrals, but the strict canons of the Catholic Council 30 strictly regulated the appearance and objects that could be depicted inside and on the walls of churches. An artist or sculptor could not just draw a picture from the nightmare of his dreams, but had to coordinate it with the church council, and all the more so since this is not some kind of secluded church, but a cathedral.

But nevertheless, there is a figurine on the wall, photographs of the found phenomenon quickly spread around the world and an active debate unfolded around. Here are the options presented to me:
1. If this is a time traveler, then he is from the near future, then a time machine will soon be invented.
2. If this picture is from the dreams of some soothsayer during the construction of the cathedral, then what a pity that humanity has lost these abilities.
3. If this is an alien who came to earth in the past, then why didn't he get into the stories, or paintings of the artists of that time?

But still, it looks more like falsification and forgery.
Tourists began to ask about this figurine, the guides began to invent stories, laugh it off, which nevertheless prompted scientists to investigate.

It didn't take long to dig. It was enough to talk to the restorers. The cathedral was restored in 1992. In place of the crumbling unknown bas-reliefs, new ones were created. In one of the new ones, it was decided to "put on the wall" of an architectural monument information about an important achievement of the 20th century - man's spacewalk. The fact that the sketch was agreed was not concealed, but it was not advertised either, they simply fell silent. So, when an astronaut was discovered a few years later, there was a sensation.

I don’t know how clearly they follow the canons of the Council of Thirty during the restoration and construction of new churches, but at least new fragments should be marked with something (in Mexico, for example, they are surrounded by a chain of small stones). The photo does not show any distinguishing marks of the restoration. It is probably beneficial to someone that the sensation continues to live. Also, in the article of our colleague autilin, "scientists from the local university unearthed sketches of the 17th century and the astronaut was already there." It looks like an attempt to grab the outgoing sensation by the tail. It is possible that the sketches of the mosaic were not so detailed, and they had something similar, but not so obvious, and the sculptor added "liveness".

There was no worldwide sensation, except for the sensation of concealing the fact of image modification during reconstruction.

It is human nature to search for the inexplicable and mysterious. And even when an explanation for a mysterious phenomenon has already been found, there are always people who continue to believe in the “wonderful” nature of the phenomenon.

A classic example of such a riddle is the ancient cathedral in the provincial center of Salamanca.located in the Autonomous Community of Castile and Leónand since 1985 included in the UNESCO heritage list. The temple complex itself (one of two in the city) consists of two cathedrals - the old one (Catedral Vieja,XIIcentury) and the new, late Gothic CatedralNueva de la Asunción de la Virgen (New Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin), built inXVIAndXVIIIcenturies.

But not all tourists arriving here are attracted by the beauty of the ancient temple. Upon arrival, many immediately rush to the northern entrance to the new cathedral, where on the portal at the “doors of palm branches” (Puerta de Ramos), right in front of the Anaya Palace, at high altitude you can clearly see the figure of ... a modern astronaut in full "combat" equipment - a spacesuit with a breathing hose, a helmet, an instrument boxon the chest andboots with grooved soles. This figure even received an unofficial name - "Holy Cosmonaut".

Where did this astronaut come fromon the wall of an old cathedral? The explanation is quite simple: in 1992, during the restoration of dilapidated "doors of palm branches" one of the restorers - a certain Miguel Romero - showed creative initiative by decorating the wall with a similar figure. Further versions differ: someone believes that the restorer thus decided to play a joke. Others have a more pragmatic explanation: Romero, having introduced a modern element to the facade of an ancient temple, wanted to perpetuate in a similar way a landmark event for the twentieth century - the conquest of space by man. But who exactly the figure represents, here the versions differ. The first cosmonaut of the planet, Russian Yuri Gagarin, appears as a stone character,the first American astronaut John Glenn, the first American to go into outer space Edward White,first American astronaut to walk on the moonNeil Armstrong, etc.

Nevertheless, many people tend to believe that the figure of the astronaut was originally located here, and, therefore, has a mysterious origin that goes beyond ordinary logic. They say that the joke of the restorers in this case is excluded for a number of reasons. Firstly, the image of the astronaut is fixed on the engravingsXIXcentury. Secondly, in the old manuscripts of Salamanca, there is allegedly information about the meetings of monks with creatures from other worlds. Thirdly, restoration always follows the canons approved in the Middle Ages, and in the case of an object that is a UNESCO heritage, additional expertise, approvals and permits are required. They also say that this is not an astronaut at all, but a kind of hellish offspring, of which there are many "dwell" on the walls, facades and capitals of the columns of ancient European temples.

To prove the "wonderful" version of the origin of the astronaut, a number of other similar finds are cited. For example, images of astronauts on Japanese netska, a model of an aircraft from an ancient Egyptian tomb, Inca golden "airplanes", an image of Darth Vader on the National Cathedral in Washington, as well as an image of a man with a laptop and a mobile phone on the mosaic of the Kievskaya Koltsevaya metro station in Moscow, built back in 1954.

It must be said that on the wall of the Cathedral in Salamanca there are other, less well-known, but no less curious figures. For example, the figure of a smiling dragon with three scoops of ice cream. Or a boy with not childishly developed manhood.

Guides and guides are in no hurry to convince fans of the "wonderful" version of the appearance of an astronaut on the wall of an ancient temple. After all, most importantly, intrigued tourists come here, replenishing the local treasury. In the end, why convince people who so want to believe in a miracle.

At the northern entrance to the Cathedral of Salamanca is always crowded: groups of tourists linger near the portal, framed by sculptures

Take a look at the figure of an astronaut, - the guide points to a small sculpture about two meters above the threshold. - This is a portrait of Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon.

After standing on the porch of the cathedral for a quarter of an hour, I heard two more versions from various guides: this is John Glenn, the first American astronaut; Edward White, the first American to walk in outer space. In all cases, Spanish guides refer to a local restorer who twenty years ago decided to place a figurine of a conqueror of space at the entrance to the cathedral. Sergio Arrela, deputy director of the cathedral museum, commented on my bewilderment: yes, indeed, in 1990, the sculptor-restorer Miguel Romero allowed himself this little artistic prank.

An architect's joke or a monster?

However, Rodrigo Solanelles, vicar of the cathedral, has a different version, he strongly rejected this "heresy":

The decoration of any Catholic church is built in strict accordance with the church canon developed in the early Middle Ages. There simply cannot be any "pranks" by individual artists - the diocese will never approve a heretical element of decor.

- But how then did the astronaut get on the wall of the cathedral?

“Trust the guides less,” the padre remarked ironically. - This is a monster common for the Middle Ages, of which there are innumerable outside on Catholic churches, they symbolize those fiends that a person can encounter outside the temple, but they have no way inside the cathedral.

Once again I peer into the sculptural decoration of the northern portal. Indeed, to the right of the "astronaut" is a typical monster: a bearded monkey with a human look and a vulgarly protruding backside (see photo). From this monster, you want to immediately hide under the canopy of the church.

As for the controversial figure, perhaps not - after all, this is an astronaut: a classic spacesuit, as in the Museum of Cosmonautics at VDNKh; on the chest - a box of some kind of device, and the transverse rings of the breathing hose are realistically drawn, and even the corrugated sole of the boots (see photo).

The Adventures of the Monks

Esteban Sansa, lecturer in philosophy at the University of Salamanca and at the same time head of the Association of Authors of Alternative Scientific Concepts, is sure that the figure that interests me was made no later than the 18th century, when the new building of the cathedral was being completed. This certainty of his has a strictly scientific justification: in the university library, Mr. Sansa's students found an engraving from the beginning of the 19th century with a photographically accurate depiction of the entire sculptural decoration of the cathedral. So, the “astronaut” occupies the same place on this engraving as it does today. And in the manuscripts of the Renaissance there are several references to the meetings of the Salamanca monks with strange creatures in which "the skin is hidden under the outer skin." It turns out that there is no arbitrariness of the restorer here.

It remains to add that the entire architectural ensemble of the center of Salamanca, including, of course, the cathedral, back in 1985, that is, a few years before the start of its restoration, was taken under the protection of UNESCO as a universal heritage. All documents on the restoration of monuments of this level undergo many approvals, including international expertise. Therefore, it is simply impossible to simply add an “astronaut” or anyone else to the garland of medieval figures.

It turns out that a strange monster, strikingly identical in appearance with an astronaut-astronaut, was made by the masters of the Middle Ages (maximum of the 18th century). Another question: why? Maybe, really impressed by the meeting with mysterious creatures that have “skin hidden under the outer skin”, the masters decided to leave a memory of this unforgettable event?

The first thing that comes to mind is photoshop, but no, the astronaut is real. The figurine is a long-known artifact in the world. It is located in the Spanish city of Salamanca - adorns one of the cathedrals. True, not the one that was built in 1102 - the so-called Old Cathedral (Catedral Vieja), but the later one - the New (Catedral Nueva), built between 1513 and 1733. The difference of almost 500 years, I must say, is unprincipled. And at that time there were no astronauts. And yet it is on the wall of the cathedral. Yes, even in boots with corrugated soles ...

The sensation took place after modern photo optics made it possible to distinguish small details of magnificent architectural decoration at a high altitude, previously inaccessible to tourist cameras.

It was then that the tourists saw among the mythical creatures in the bas-relief of someone who definitely cannot be there. And as a result, historians and museum workers are forced to get nervous and answer the simple-minded questions of perplexed tourists. Worst of all, the specialists cannot work out a single version of what happened and do not coordinate their answers with each other.

For the first time the figure of an astronaut was noticed in 1995, Sergio Arrela, deputy director of the museum of the cathedral, said that in 1990 the sculptor-restorer Miguel Romero allowed himself a little "artistic prank."

This was the most radical answer - the other answerers are hesitant to go that far. Because the next question for Signor Arella will be “how many little pranks are allowed by the“ sculptors-restorers” and how much creative freedom is given during the“ restoration ”?” This is an extremely painful issue, since the entire architectural ensemble of the center of Salamanca, including, of course, the cathedral, back in 1985, a few years before the restoration began, was taken under the protection of UNESCO as a universal heritage, that is, recognized as one of the absolute masterpieces. All documents on the restoration of monuments of this level undergo many approvals, including international expertise. Therefore, it is simply impossible to simply add an astronaut or anyone else to the garland of medieval figures.

Realizing that such slippery questions cannot be avoided, the vicar of the cathedral, Rodrigo Solanelles, takes a diametrically opposite position:

“The decoration of any Catholic church is built in strict accordance with the church canon developed in the early Middle Ages. There simply cannot be any “pranks” by individual artists - the diocese will never approve a heretical element of decor.”

In other words, there is no astronaut on the side gates of the cathedral, and anyone who thinks otherwise is mistaken. According to the priest, these are monsters common for the Middle Ages, which are innumerable outside on Catholic churches. They, they say, symbolize the fiends that a person can encounter outside the temple, but they have no way inside the cathedral.

However, the vicar's remarks are not the strangest thing in this story. Esteban Sansa, professor of philosophy at the University of Salamanca, is convinced that the figure was made no later than the 18th century, when the new building of the cathedral was being completed. He claims that the astronaut is in the engraving of the 19th century. But only now the engraving was not presented to the public.

By the way, the 1995 photo shows the astronaut with a completely intact face, and in the pictures taken two years later, his face is seriously damaged by the inexorable passage of time.

Perhaps it is these contradictions that fuel interest in history, which is not so mysterious. After all, in principle, the placement of certain symbols that characterize the era during which restoration is being carried out is a very common practice. The only funny thing is that the sculptor simply chose a space theme.