The facade of the cathedral is truly a "poor man's Bible", as Romanesque sculpture is often described. In the stone cartoons in his panels, Wiligelmo tells a story from the Old Testament in images which even the illiterate can understand. First God appears in the glory of the almond tree, and then we see the creation of Adam and Eve and original sin. In the second panel, God accuses Adam and Eve, who show guilty awareness that they are at fault; they are then driven from Paradise and condemned to labour. The whole of the third panel is dedicated to the drama of the second generation: Cain and Abel bring their offers to God's altar, Cain kills Abel and God curses Cain. In the fourth panel, Cain is slain with an arrow by the blind Lamech, whose son Noah takes to the Ark in the second scene to escape from the Deluge. Finally, the Deluge over, Noah is shown with his sons, all looking hopefully to the future. The events described are tragic, but significantly they finish on a hopeful note.

But what is the link between the Biblical stories portrayed by Wiligelmo's chisel and the other figures on the facade?

On the portico, we see lions fighting snakes and stags drinking, in the top right-hand corner a man fighting a lion, and two cherubs holding torches on the sides of the portico. To understand them, we have to dive into the obscure world of Medieval symbols.