Pórtico de la Gloria

The Portico of Glory, the major work of the history of medieval art, is the central space of the western closure conceived by Master Mateo, and consist of an area covered by four-part ribbed vaults, with three big arches that give access to the naves, matching the width of them. It is used as a narthex to the Cathedral of Santiago, and it was open to the Plaza del Obradoiro until the XVI century, when two big doors closed it.
The iconographic programme of the Portico of Glory is about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Apocalypse by Saint John. It starts in the crypt with the earthly world; it develops in the arches with the Limbo, the Second Coming and the Final Judgment and in the counter façade with the Ordo Prophetarum; and it ends in the tribune with the celestial Jerusalem. The figures show a clear evolution since the Romanesque art, with hieratical and rigid sculptures to the beginning of the Gothic art, accentuating, among other things, the expressivity in the faces.