When closed and bolted, these massive doors provided considerable defense against weapons such as battering rams and other war machines. Their vertically arranged oak planks are reinforced with spiked iron bands on the exterior and crossbeams on the interior. Except for the fifteenth-century lock, the doors and ironwork are believed to have come from a twelfth-century building in the Pyrenees. The twenty-four iron bands affixed horizontally to the doors are pierced with geometric patterns such as diamonds, dots, and rectangles. The terminals of the bands are decorated with fanciful motifs resembling animal heads, treetops, or wheels. The wheel-shaped terminal directly above the lock contains an image of the crucified Christ.
