Sigüenza Cathedral

About

The Cathedral of Sigüenza, officially Catedral de Santa María de Sigüenza, is the seat of the bishop of Sigüenza, in the town of Sigüenza, in Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1931. It is dedicated to Santa María la Mayor (the Virgin Mary), the patron saint of the city of Sigüenza. It dates to January 1124 when the bishop Bernard of Agen (1080–1152) reconquered the city from the Muslims, during the reign of Urraca of León, daughter of Alfonso VI of León and Castile. He had already been appointed bishop in 1121 by the archbishop of Toledo, Bernard of Sédirac, of the Order of Cluny. Alfonso VII of León and Castile (1126–1157) granted privileges and donations to increase the population, unifying two towns: the upper around the castle and the lower one, the Mozarabic, around the channel of the Henares River. The Gothic central nave dates to the 15th century. In the 16th century the Romanesque lateral apses were destroyed to build the ambulatory. The two outer towers of the main facade have merlons.

The archbishop of Toledo Bernard of Sédirac had Bernard of Agen come to his diocese of Toledo to become bishop of Sigüenza in 1121, although the city was still under the control of the Almoravids.

A letter from Queen Urraca of Leon dated February 1, 1124 granted the church and its bishop the tithe of Atienza and Medinaceli. Bernard of Agen established the " Roman rite " and suppressed the " Mozarabic rite ". During his term of about thirty years, he received donations from the king Alfonso VII of León and Castile. The city was divided into the "Segontia inferior" and the "Segontia superior." After the reconquest, the two were united as a single city that passed to the Cathedral chapter.

The bishop died on the battlefield in the year 1152, succeeding him in the bishopric his nephew Peter of Leucate.

In a document of 16 September 1138 Alfonso VII of León and Castile granted the land for the church.

A document from 1144 says that Bernard of Agen rebuilt a primitive cathedral "with a double wall and tower," possibly on the remains of an old Visigothic or Mozarabic church, Santa María Antiquíssima. María del Carmen Múñoz Párraga believed that this was on the spot where the current cathedral is located.

The Romanesque temple had a floor plan of three naves and a head with five apses staggered from the sides to the much larger central one. On either side of the facade was a defense tower.

The five altars of the apses were consecrated by the end of the 12th century.

Under bishop Arderico (1178–1184) the Cathedral chapter was moved to the cloister. Bishop Rodrigo (1192–1221) built the wall of the main facade and the lower part of the towers. The 13th century rose window on the southern side of the transept is ornamented with arches and circles.

The Gothic central nave is from the 14th century and the rose window on the main façade from the 15th.

In 1936 during the Spanish Civil War the cathedral was damaged. From 1943 to 1949 the Segovian sculptor Florentino Trapero supervised the restoration of damaged sculptures.

The main facade, on the west side, is Romanesque with later Neoclassical and Baroque additions. It has three doors divided by two buttresses.

The atrium, built in 1536, consists of twenty-one limestone columns, topped by chiselled lions, and measures 48 x 24 meters. On the north side of the atrium, the Contaduría del Cabildo has three Plateresque windows. In 1783 the bars and the two forge doors were carved with the shield of the commissioning bishop Francisco Javier Delgado Venegas.

The middle door, called the "Puerta de los Perdones," is built with a semicircular arc and archivolts supported on columns with a capital. Above it is a pediment with a medallion in Baroque bas-relief representing the scene of The imposition of the chasuble on Saint Ildefonsus and a Romanesque rose window of the 13th century to illuminate the central nave.

These towers, which were initially isolated, were built with defensive lookouts and later joined the wall. On both sides of the main façade, the two sandstone towers rise, with a square floor plan and three lower rooms with small Romanesque windows -one on each side- and in the fourth section with double windows with round arches. body with merlons and some stone spheres. The tower on the right, called " las Campanas ", has a height of 40.5 meters, with an internal staircase of 140 steps, its last body was added in the 14th century, the bishop Pedro Gómez Barroso (1348–1358), who also had stone ashlar covered with the initial work, made in masonry and with the shields of the bishop and the king Peter of Castile placed on the wall of the fourth floor. The tower on the left, called "Don Fadrique", has a height of 41.7 meters and was completed in the 16th century, has the date of 1533 and the inscribed coat of arms of the bishop Fadrique de Portugal.

Turning through the tower of las Campanas is the south facade, corresponding to one end of the transept of the cathedral. In the central nave (higher), you can see the Gothic ogival stained glass, separated by buttresses, with the eaves, resting on brackets, with animal forms, alternating with metopes decorated with plant motifs. The windows of the nave lateral (bottom) show the Romanesque-ogival transition, with eaves and cornice of blind arcades.

Further east, we find the Puerta del Mercado, formerly "Puerta de La Cadena", which overlooks the Plaza Mayor, Romanesque style, from the 12th century; this door is covered by a closed portico, Neoclassical style, built in 1797 by the architect Bernasconi commissioned by the bishop Juan Díaz de la Guerra. On the portal, a Romanesque rose window of transition, from the 13th century, with a very original tracery design.

The Gallo tower dates from the early 14th century and was originally a military watchtower to transmit signals that could be seen from the Castle of Sigüenza. It has undergone several restorations over the years. On the central nave, the lantern tower is from the Spanish postwar period.

It is analogous to the one on the opposite side, with a different rose window; in this facade, the tower is on the sacristy of Wilgefortis, in the north arm of the transept ; the height of this tower is that of the central nave, and remains unfinished.

On this façade, corresponding to the head of the temple, the presence of the ambulatory that powerfully replaced the five chapels, which were originally Romanesque, stands out. The lantern tower and the tall Gothic windows correspond to the presbytery.