León Cathedral

About

Santa María de Regla de León Cathedral is a Catholic church, the episcopal see of the diocese of León in the city of León, Castile and León, north-western Spain, consecrated under the name of the Virgin Mary. It was the first monument declared by the Royal Order of Spain on 28 August 1844 (confirmed by the Royal Order on 24 September 1845). Initiated in the 13th century, it is one of the greatest works of the Gothic style, with French influences. Also known as the Pulchra Leonina, which means ‘Beautiful Leonese’, it is located on the Way of Saint James, or Camino de Santiago. The León Cathedral is mostly known for taking the “dematerialization” of gothic art to the extreme, that is, the reduction of the walls to their minimum expression to be replaced by stained glass, constituting one of the largest collections of medieval stained glass in the world.

León Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Mary, mother of Jesus, is known as the Pulchra Leonina and is a masterpiece of the Gothic style of the mid-13th century. The design is attributed to the Master Mason Enrique. By the mid 15th century it was virtually completed.

The main façade has two towers. The southern tower is known as the 'clock tower'. The Renaissance retrochoir contains alabaster sculptures by Jusquin, Copin of Holland and Juan de Malinas. Particularly noteworthy is the Plateresque iron grillwork screen or reja in the wall behind the sepulcher of King Ordoño.

It has three portals decorated with sculptures situated in the pointed arches between the two towers. The central section has a large rose window. Particularly outstanding is the image of the Virgen Blanca and the Locus Appellatione, where justice was imparted.

The church has nearly 1,800 square meters of stained glass windows. The great majority of them date from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century: a rarity among medieval gothic churches.

In the Main Chapel, there is an altarpiece by Nicolás Francés (15th century) and a silver urn containing the relics of San Froilán, the town's patron saint, made by Enrique de Arfe. The 13th- to 15th-century cloister contains sculpted details in the capitals, friezes, and ledges.

The Cathedral Museum houses a large collection of sacred art. There are almost 1,500 pieces, including 50 Romanesque sculptures of the Virgin, dating from prehistoric times to the 18th century ( Neoclassicism ) with works by Juan de Juni, Gregorio Fernández, Mateo Cerezo, a triptych of the School of Antwerp, a Mozarabic bible and numerous codices. The first manuscript in the Leonese language, the Nodicia de Kesos, can be found in its archives.

Leon Cathedral is also one of the three most important cathedrals, along with that of Burgos and Santiago de Compostela, on The Way of Saint James (or in Spanish, El Camino de Santiago ). It was declared a Monument of Cultural Interest in 1844.

The Roman baths Originally, on the current site of the cathedral, the Legio VII Gemina had built thermal baths larger in size than the current cathedral. During the great restoration of the building in the 19th century, the remains of the thermal baths were discovered under the cathedral, and in 1996, others were discovered near the south façade. Little remains of these primitive buildings, only some vestiges of mosaics, roof tiles ( tegulas ), and ceramics, displayed today at the cathedral museum. Others, like the hypocaust, remain under the site.

During the Reconquista (Christian reconquest) the ancient Roman baths were converted into a royal palace. King Ordoño II, who had occupied the throne of Leon in 916, defeated the Arabs in the Battle of San Esteban de Gormaz in 917. As a sign of gratitude to God for victory, he gave up his palace to build the first cathedral. Under the episcopate of Fruminio II, the building was transformed into a sacred place. The tomb of Ordoño II of Leon, who died in 924, is found in the cathedral.

The temple was guarded and governed by monks of the Order of St. Benedict, and it is likely that its structure was very similar to many others existing during the Leonese Mozarabic period. Almanzor campaigned through these lands in the late 10th century, devastating the city and destroying the temples. However, damage to the building of the cathedral appears to have been rapidly addressed, since in the year 999 King Alfonso V was crowned in the church.

After the political turmoil and Moorish raids that lasted until 1067 the state of the cathedral was in extreme poverty. This would move to King Ferdinand I of León, who, after transferring the remains of San Isidoro to León, sought to restore the temple. This king achieved success in the expansion of the kingdom.

The Romanesque cathedral With the help of the infanta Urraca of Zamora, the first-born daughter of the king, begins the construction of a second cathedral, according to the aspirations of the city and the Romanesque style. It was within the episcopal see of Pelagius of Oviedo, or Pelayo II. Between 1884 and 1888, when the architect Demetrio de los Ríos, excavated the basement of the cathedral to replace the pavement and lay the foundations of the pillars, he found part of the walls and factory of the second cathedral. Through the plan that he drew, we notice how everything was configured within the Gothic: It was built in brick and masonry, with three naves finished in semicircular apses, dedicating the central nave to Saint Mary, as in the previous church. A cloister was also built on the north side. The new church was significant in dimensions, measuring 60 meters in length and 40 meters in maximum width. Although all of it was executed within the international currents of the Romanesque, contemplating what has survived of its statutory, we can find out that it had an indigenous character, still using the horseshoe arch, at least as a decorative form. It was consecrated on 10 November 1073, during the reign of Alfonso VI. Presumably the same stonemasons who built the Basilica of San Isidoro of León also worked on the León Cathedral.

The cathedral remained in place until the end of the next century. When the last proprietary king of León, Alfonso IX, accedes to the throne, the city and in the kingdom witness an important change in society, artistic creativity, and cultural development.

Construction of the current Gothic cathedral

Construction of the third cathedral began around the year 1205, but problems in structural foundation paralyzed construction, and the work was not resumed until 1255. Under the pontificate of Bishop Martín Fernández and the support of King Alfonso X de Castilla, this new cathedral became entirely Gothic.

The architect of the cathedral seems to have been Master Enrique, probably a native of France, who had previously worked on Burgos Cathedral. It is evident that he was familiar with Gothic architectural form of Île-de-France. He died in 1277 and was replaced with the Spanish Juan Pérez. In 1289, Bishop Martín Fernández also died, when the top of the church was open for worship. The fundamental structure of the cathedral was soon completed, in 1302, with Bishop Gonzalo Osorio opening the entire church to the faithful, although the cloister and the north tower were still not completed; the south tower was not completed until the second half of the 15th century. This promptness in completion gives the cathedral a great unity of architectural style.

The León Cathedral was inspired by the layout of the Reims Cathedral (although it was smaller in area size), which was well known to Master Enrique. Like most French cathedrals, León was constructed with modular geometry based on the triangle ( ad triangulum ), whose members related to the square root of 3, to which the totality of its parts and the whole respond. This aspect, like the plan, the elevations, and the decorative and symbolic repertoires, convert the cathedral into an authentic trans-Pyrenees building, away from the Hispanic current, which has earned it the qualifications of “the most French of Spanish cathedrals,” or the Pulchra Leonina.

In addition to its layout, the Cathedral of Leon is also inspired by that of Rheims in its structure, the form of the chapels of its ambulatory (in this case polygonal), and the development of its transept. The influence of Chartres Cathedral can be seen in the western porch. The one in Leon abandons the model of Rheims Cathedral in the elevations beyond the body of the clerestory, as it is transparent there and it accommodates the technical progress achieved in the Sainte Chapelle in Paris and Amiens Cathedral.

French influence is also found in developing the chancel, where initially the choir was to be put according to their custom. Specifically Leonese is the location of the cloister, with no organic tie to the temple, the exit in the floor plan of the towers of the main façade, displaying the elevation of the buttresses of the nave, and the discontinuity of the five naves at the front end of the main area of the temple, which were reduced to three.