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Farragut in combat with Roland
190 Saracen giant Faragut slain by Roland, twelth-century carved capital from the Palace of the Dukes of Granada, Estella, Spain.
Source: p175, David Nicolle, "An introduction to arms and warfare in classical Islam", in: Islamic Arms and Armour, ed. Robert Elgood, London 1979
In Estella stands the Palace of the Kings of Navarre, also known as the Palace of the Dukes of Granada de Ega. It is the only civil Romanesque building in Navarre and was declared a National Monument in 1931. It was built during the last third of the 12th century. Facing towards the church of San Pedro de la Rúa, it has a magnificent façade with two capitals featuring plants and two narrative capitals, one of which represents the battle between Roland and the giant Farragut.
The lower capital of the left-hand column is the most famous of the two narrative capitals, in which you can clearly distinguish the battle between Roland and Farragut, the former being Charlemagne's foremost knight and the latter a giant Moor. The capital shows the moment when the Christian hero defeated the Muslim by striking him at his only weak spot, his navel.
