Salamanca Old Cathedral

About

The Cathedral of Santa María (Spanish: Catedral Vieja de Santa María), known as the Old Cathedral, is one of the two cathedrals in Salamanca, Castile and León, Spain. Founded by Bishop Jerome of Périgord, its construction began in the first third of the 12th century and was finished at the end of the 14th century, in Romanesque and Gothic style. It was finished thanks to the impulse given to the works by Bishop Alfonso Barasaque. It is dedicated to Saint Mary of the See (Santa María de la Sede).

It began to be built on the initiative of its first bishop, Jerome of Périgord (died in 1120) after the restoration of the diocese of Salamanca by King Alfonso VI of León, and after the repopulation of the city carried out by his son-in-law Raymond of Burgundy. This was a period in which Romanesque was giving way to Gothic, something that can be seen in the difference between the pillars and the starts of the ribbed vaults, since there is no constructive continuity between them, as the former were designed to support a barrel vault, and the cathedral was completed in 1236.

It was on the verge of being destroyed in the early modern Age, since when the New Cathedral was planned, it was thought to be demolished, but the long period of time that elapsed from the beginning of the works of the New Cathedral (around 1520) and the late date of completion (around 1733), as well as the need of a space where to celebrate the cult while the construction was finished, made that the initial decision to demolish it was abandoned. In this sense, in plan, the left nave appears narrower and part of the transept arm is missing, as a consequence of the construction of the New Cathedral.

It is a basilica-shaped building, with a Latin cross and three naves, a marked transept and a chevet formed by three semicircular apses, which show windows with semicircular arches on the exterior. Given the frontier character of Salamanca, it was also designed as a fortress, a quality now not so visible, since the battlements of the Mocha Tower have disappeared and the roof of the nave, formerly a walkable terrace, has been replaced by another of Spanish tile. For this reason it was popularly known as fortis salmantina.

The works began to be carried out by the apse, that is why this would be the oldest part, being able to contemplate the change of style in the vaults that cover the naves, since they were projected groin vaults and were replaced by ribbed vaults.

The most outstanding element of the monument is the considerable dome that rises over the transept supported by four impressive pendentives, and whose date of construction should be placed around 1150. On the inside it is shaped like an open orange with sixteen segments, while on the outside it is almost conical in shape, decorated with scales, and is popularly known as the "Torre del Gallo" (Tower of the Rooster), since this animal appears on the weathervane that crowns it. It rests on a drum with sixteen columns in the interior, lightened by 32 windows, 16 nerves cross meeting in the central part of the dome. The model of the dome is based on that of the Cathedral of Zamora, which was the first of the group of Duero domes, also called Leonese or Byzantine-Leonese domes (group formed by the domes of the cathedrals of Zamora, Old Cathedral of Plasencia, the Old Cathedral of Salamanca itself, and that of the Collegiate Church of Toro ), which have a similar structure with two different domes, one on the inside and the other on the outside, between which there would be a filling of gravel and earth, although they rest one on the other. The exterior decoration of scaled form is very curious and difficult to trace in the History of Art, there being similar decorations in churches in Turkey, although they also appear in the decoration of the towers of the Church of Notre-Dame la Grande in Poitiers, a much more probable influence than the Turkish, if it is taken into account that people from France participated in the repopulation of the city.

Little remains of the original main façade, covered by another of the 13th century. It is flanked by two towers; the one on the left (torre de las campanas) was left under the tower of the New Cathedral, and the one on the right, which was never finished, was given the name of Torre Mocha, and can still be seen. The new doorway, shortly after being built, was partially covered, on the left side, by the stone slope that had to be made to reinforce the bell tower after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.

Other attractions of the temple are the main altarpiece from the 15th century, attributed to Nicolò Delli (1430), and the upper fresco, representing the Last Judgment, which is certainly by Nicolò Delli (1445). The apse houses a large cycle of 53 tableaux, 12 of which by the 15th-century Italian artist Dello Delli, depicting the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. At the foot, under the Torre de las campanas, is the chapel of San Martín or del Aceite. The latter was painted by Antón Sánchez de Segovia in 1262. In the cloister there are some frescoes from the 13th-14th centuries that decorate the sepulchres and a series of chapels open, among which are the Chapel of Talavera, the Chapel of Santa Barbara, with the tomb of the bishop Juan Lucero, in which the examinations of degree of the University of Salamanca were carried out, the chapel of Santa Catalina and the chapel of San Bartolomé or de Anaya.

The work was placed between the years 1430-1450 and there are three authors working on the 53 panels that make up the altarpiece of the Old Cathedral of Salamanca.

The main works correspond to the Italian artist Dello Delli, to him correspond the first 12 panels, which are undoubtedly the ones with the highest quality. Dello would have the help of his two brothers, Sanson Delli made some boards of the central part of the altarpiece with the help of local artists who would work under the orders of Dello Delli. Finally, the third brother Nicolò Delli, better known as Niccolò Florentino, made some of the last panels of the work and the painting of the Last Judgment that is in the shell of the apse of the cathedral.

The altarpiece presents a cycle of the life of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, from the Birth of the Virgin to the passage of the Mother of Christ, all accompanied by scenes from the life of Jesus and topped by the magnificent Last Judgment. The paintings are shown as very advanced for the artistic moment lived in Spain at that time, some of the Renaissance solutions that appear in the buildings of the paintings, as well as some domes that recall the work of Brunelleschi are too new for a country that still builds in Gothic. The vivid colors, with pink standing out among them, make the paintings very recognizable. The influence of Italian painting, in particular the Sienese and Florentine school, mixed with the typical details of Flemish painting, come together in a masterful way to offer a magnificent pictorial cycle.

The Last Judgment is represented in the apse shell, where Jesus Christ appears walking threateningly to separate the good from the bad. The right hand of Jesus is between the blessing and the threat, the left hand is taken to his chest with the intention of opening the wound in his side and showing it to the whole world. The iconographic scheme of Jesus Christ is the same as the one later used by Michelangelo for the Judgment of the Sistine Chapel. Christ appears surrounded by angels carrying different elements of the Passion. At his feet are the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist kneeling, awaiting the advance of Jesus, who seems to be walking. To the right of Christ appears the saved, dressed in white, to his left the condemned, naked and seeming to walk towards the mouth of a giant monster. Between the figures of the damned, the faces of a bishop and a Pope can be seen, alluding to the fact that no one is free from God's judgment.

The altarpiece is presided over by an image known as the Virgin of la Vega, patron saint of the city. The image, made of wood, is covered with gilded bronze inlaid with enamel and precious stones. It comes from the disappeared monasterio de Santa María de la Vega, of regular canons of Saint Augustine located in the fertile valley of the Tormes river. It must be dated in the 12th century, follows Byzantine models, immobile, holds on his knees the child, showing it to the spectator with his right hand.

It is located under the so-called Torre de las Campanas (bell tower), on which the current tower of the New Cathedral was built. It seems that the name of the Saint Martin could not be placed as titular of the Cathedral because it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, that is why a Saint as French as Martin, was relegated to a small chapel located at the foot of the cathedral, housed in the hollow of the bell tower. However, the name of the Saint could have been given to a Romanesque church that with a similar scheme to the cathedral, although smaller, was built outside the walls, where later the Plaza Mayor de Salamanca would be built (that is why, at the beginning it was called Plaza de San Martín). Just before entering the chapel and discovered a short time ago, there is a large painting on the wall of the temple where Saint Martin is sharing his cloak.

The most interesting thing that has this chapel are some paintings adorned with coats of arms of the kingdoms of León and Castile, some of which appear dated in the year 1262 and have as author to Antón Sánchez de Segovia, located in the back wall with images of Jeremiah, Isaiah and Daniel above and St. Joachim and St. Anne below, all of them under feigned architectural arches. Next to these, located in the side wall and made in the 16th century, stands out the image of the Last Judgment, painted as if it were a tapestry, where Jesus Christ is presented inside an almond, showing hands, feet and side to show the wounds of the passion, accompanied by Apostles and the Virgin, separating the saved from the damned.

There are also several tombs in the chapel, including that of Bishop Rodrigo Díaz, who died in 1339, and is decorated with paintings from the same period and scenes from the Adoration of the Magi. In front of this, another tomb houses the remains of the founder of the chapel, Pedro Pérez, who died in 1262.

The primitive cloister was damaged in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and there are no appreciable remains in the site. The present one is the result of a later reconstruction. On its eastern and southern sides there are a series of chapels which are detailed below.

In 2013 was confirmed that the original cloister of the Old Cathedral of Salamanca was disassembled and is located reconstructed within a private estate of Palamós (Girona, Catalonia) ( Romanesque cloister of the Mas del Vent in Palamós ), this led to much criticism from a part of the population.

It is the oldest of all the chapels that form the cloister. It is covered with a dome with 16 parallel ribs two by two that are supported by columns, forming an eight-pointed star in the keystone. This type of dome is of Muslim influence and very strange for such an early period in northern Spain. In this chapel, founded by Rodrigo Maldonado de Talavera, a native of Talavera de la Reina, professor and rector of the university, the Mozarabic Rite has been maintained since the 16th century. The tomb of the founder and that of his wife are in the center of the chapel.

It was founded by Bishop Bishop Lucero in 1334, whose tomb is in the center, and is decorated with a small altarpiece that includes paintings depicting scenes of the death and passion of Christ and an image of the titular Saint, the latter made in the 16th century. The front of the altar shows a magnificent decoration of Talavera de la Reina pottery.