The Decorative Window Inserts in the Church of Yemrehannä Krestos

Abstract

The church of Yemrehannä Krestos (Tigray Province) is a royal foundation and one of the few built churches that have survived in Ethiopia from before the fteenth century. Its survival is undoubtedly due to its having been erected inside a cave. Patronage has been attributed to an eponymous king who is thought to have ruled in the second half of the twelfth century, but aspects of the architecture itself point rather to the mid-thirteenth century. The church’s measurements are modest, being 8.75 m long and 6.4 m wide. It is nevertheless endowed with twenty-six windows. That probably six are blind and ten open onto near total darkness emphasizes their aesthetic purpose. Those of the more visible north and east sides are for the most part filled with highly decorative and often intricate wood- and stone-carved patterns. While some of these can be traced back to the great stele of Axum, others are mirrored in the painted intarsia-like ceiling decoration of the church interior, in the wooden friezes of the ancient churches of Däbrä Dammo and Zärema Giyorgis, and in the panels of chancel screens from Däbrä Salam, Mika’el Amba, and again Zärema. Most are inspired by forms and designs based on the cross, and are consequently of early origin. Some can be identied in surviving Coptic art and it may be surmised that others can be traced to the same source.