the Puerta de la Pellejeria, a plateresque structure facing east, dating
from the year 1516. Somewhat of the Gothic spirit may be detected in
this sumptuous but not over-decorated portal. The detail is excellent,
and the execution vigorous. With the figures of the Virgin, the
Apostles, Saints, and Bishops are associated genii, _amorini_, and
heraldic achievements in the true Renaissance style. Above the doorway
is a group representing the martyrdom of the two Saints John; and over
this a prelate, probably Rodriguez de Fonseca, is kneeling at the feet
of the Madonna. The composition is flanked by the fine statues of Saints
Peter and Paul; and on the sides of this façade are placed in niches the
statues of St. John the Baptist and St. James, and St. John the Divine
and St. Andrew.
The Puerta del Sarmental gives access to the south transept. It has the
finest of the cathedral fronts. It is approached by a broad flight of
steps, flanked by the walls of the episcopal palace and cloisters, and
by some interesting fourteenth-century tombs of bishops. The
architecture of the portal is on the same plan as that of the Puerta
Alta. In the tympanum Christ is shown with the Evangelists and the
beasts symbolical of them; below are the seated figures of the twelve
Apostles. The three orders of the archivolt are adorned with angels and
with crowned figures playing various instruments. Above all this is a
magnificent rose-window filled with beautiful glass of the fourteenth
century. The third stage of the front shows three Gothic windows,
elaborately traceried, and each divided into four lights by mullions,
supported by large figures of angels. ‘The angles of the transepts,’
says Street, ‘are flanked by crocketed pinnacles, the crockets here, as
elsewhere throughout the early work, being simple in form and design,
but as perfect in effect as it is possible for crockets to be.’
The eastern front of the cathedral is formed by the Capilla del
Condestable and its adjoining chapels. The exterior of the famous
octagonal chapel mentioned is very fine. On the uppermost stage on one
of the sides two lions, standing upright, are seen supporting laurel
crowns--one containing the cross, the other the monogram of Christ. On a
lower stage the escutcheon of the Velascos and Mendozas is displayed
between two knights armed _cap-à-pie_. The stages are flanked by
effigies under canopies. The angles of the façade are surmounted by
elegant spires and pinnacles.
The plan of the cathedral--a Latin cross, with nave, aisles, and
transept--has been obscured by the chapels built on the north, south,
and east sides, as may be seen by a glance at the plan included among
the illustrations. The nave is of six bays, and fifty-eight metres long.
Though the view is spoilt, as in all Spanish churches, by the choir, it
remains picturesque, pure, and devotional in the highest degree. The dim
religious light of our northern churches, it is true, is lacking, for
the interior is white throughout, and the stained glass, which in
earlier times would have mellowed the strong sunlight, was unhappily
shattered during the war of Independence. The aisles are lower than the
nave, from which they are separated by twenty columns, each with eight
engaged shafts. The triforium is somewhat in the nature of an
architectural curiosity, and certainly has been altered since the
thirteenth century; it consists of wide bays of five or six lights each,
with trefoil and quatrefoil traceries above, enclosed within a
semicircular arch or ‘label,’ which is decorated with sculptured heads.
Street declares that he has seen nothing like this elsewhere, and
supposes it to be the work of a native artist. Above the triforium is
the original clerestory--‘Simple, but good and vigorous in style.’
The High Altar, or Altar Mayor, occupying the centre of the apse, is
approached by a flight of steps of white, red, and black marble. It is
railed off from the ambulatory by _rejas_ or bronze screens fixed on
pedestals of jasper between the pillars of the nave; the backs of these
latter are adorned with life-size statues. Behind the altar rises the
Renaissance retablo, an elaborate and gorgeous work of walnut wood,
heavily gilded and each of its stages in a different order of
architecture. The symmetrical division of these altar-pieces into
compartments, each filled with its own statue, does not strike the
layman as artistic or pleasing. Indeed, there is something faintly
suggestive of pigeon-holes about it. Street, quoting Ponz, states that
the sculptures were the work of Rodrigo and Martin de la Aya (1577), who
were paid forty thousand ducats; and that for the painting and gilding
Juan de Urbino of Madrid and Martinez of Valladolid received, in 1573,
eleven thousand ducats. At the back of the sanctuary, between the
arches, may be seen the spirited reliefs of the celebrated Juan Vigarni
or ‘Borgoña,’ executed in 1540, and representing the Agony in the
Garden, Christ bearing the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and
the Ascension. The first and last are stated by Ford to have been
executed by one Alonso de los Rios in 1679. To the Renaissance period
also belong the handsome silver lamp and candlesticks. To an earlier age
belong the tombs on the north side of the sanctuary--two concealed by
the retablo; they contain the remains of Don Juan, the rebellious son of
Alfonso X., Don Sancho, brother of Enrique II. of Trastamara, and his
wife, Doña Beatriz. Over the altar is the copy of the banner borne
before Alfonso VIII. at the Navas de Tolosa, made by the De la Aya
brothers and others about 1570.
Over the crossing or intersection of nave and transept rises the
gorgeous lantern or octagonal dome, which Philip II. said seemed like
the work of angels rather than of men. It replaced the earlier dome
which collapsed in March 1537, and was completed in December 1567.
Felipe Vigarni (de Borgoña) and Juan de Vallejo are mentioned as the
architects. The Gothic and Renaissance styles are curiously but not
inharmoniously blended in this beautiful lantern, which rises to a
height of one hundred and seventy-three feet, and is profusely adorned
with sculpture.
Crossing the wide transept we reach the choir, which occupies three bays
of the nave. Under the eastern lectern lies the effigy--of wood cased in
bronze--of the English Bishop Maurice, a fine work believed to date from
1260. The stalls, one hundred and three in number, were executed between
1497 and 1512 by Felipe Vigarni, and bestowed on the cathedral by Bishop
Pascual de Fuensanta. They are of walnut wood, and in two tiers--all
most richly carved in fine Renaissance style, the pillars between being
moulded in similar fashion. The lower seats are, on the whole, the finer
work, and are inlaid in boxwood. The subjects of the reliefs are taken
from the acts of the saints and life of the Virgin. Scenes from Genesis
form the subject of the reliefs on the fronts of the upper stalls, the
backs illustrating the New Testament. The trascoro, or screen at the
west end of the choir, cost ten thousand ducats. The _reja_ displays the
arms of Cardinal Zapata, whose gift it was; the pillars which support it
rise from pedestals of jasper, and on brackets are placed two white
marble statues of Saints Peter and Paul. These statues, columns,
reliefs, etc., were executed at the expense of Archbishop Manso de
Zuñiga, in the first half of the seventeenth century, by Fray Juan de
Rici of the Order of St. Benedict.
The grand chapel of the Constable (Capilla del Condestable), behind the
high altar at the east end of the church, was built about 1487 by Don
Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, Conde de Haro, and Lord High Constable of
Castile, the property of whose descendant, the Duque de Frias, it
remains to-day. The architect was Juan de Colonia (John of Cologne) or,
as some will have it, his son Simon. Street sees much that is German in
the style of the chapel, but also features which may be fairly
attributed to the Spaniards who worked under the architect’s orders, or
to his own efforts to consult native tastes. While the chapel may be
described as florid Gothic, the splendid entrance arch, with its
marvellous lacelike tracery, tapering pinnacles, and railing, the
masterpiece of Andino, belongs to the Renaissance. The chapel is lighted
by fourteen stained-glass windows, displaying the arms of the Velascos,
which are repeated on four large stone escutcheons on the walls. The
retablo of the high altar, believed to be by Juan de Borgoña, has, in
its lower stage, a spirited sculpture of the Purification. Before the
altar are the noble tombs of the Constable and his wife, Doña Mencia de
Mendoza, Condesa de Haro. The effigies are of Carrara marble, the tombs
of jasper. The Constable is shown in complete armour, the details of
which are admirably rendered and merit close study. At the feet of the
Countess is crouched a dog, the emblem of fidelity. This great seigneur
of old Spain and his consort are interred in the vault beneath their
monuments. Close to the monument is a huge oblong slab of polished
jasper from the quarries of Atapuerca, weighing thirty-three tons, and
intended presumably to cover a tomb. The chapel contains many other
objects of interest. The side altars display some good sculpture, the
one in the Gothic, the other in the Renaissance style. There is a fine
Flemish triptych, and a good statue of St. Jerome by Becerra. In the
sacristy is shown the little portable ivory altar which the Constable
carried about with him, and a ‘Magdalene,’ attributed by some to Da
Vinci, by others to Luini. The plate, of the same age as the chapel,
includes a chalice of silver-gilt, enamelled in red and white and richly
jewelled; a pax in ivory and enamel, a thurible shaped like a ship; a
splendid silver-gilt cross; an oval alabaster relief of the Madonna;
and other treasures, some of which are not readily shown.
The two chapels next to that of the Constable on the north side of the
apse are earlier than the others and are of good middle-pointed style.
The chapel of San Gregorio seems to be the only one belonging to the
thirteenth-century church. It contains the tomb of Bishop Fontecha. The
adjoining chapel of San Nicolás was built in 1268 by Bishop Villahoz,
whose tomb and effigy are placed upright against the wall. Close by is
one of the finest sepulchres in the cathedral--that of the Archdeacon
Fernando Villegas, an early translator of Dante. Opposite the door of
the Nacimiento chapel is a notable picture of San Juan de Ortega by
Cuadra.
At the northern end of the transept is the grand staircase of
thirty-eight steps, leading to the Puerta Alta. It is one of the finest
examples of the art of Diego de Siloe, who was at his best when handling
such intricate and profuse decoration as this. The splendid iron
balustrade was the work of Cristobal Andino.
Opening on to the north aisle are the large chapels of Santa Ana and
Santa Tecla. The former was founded in 1474 by Bishop Luis Osorio
Acuña, whose tomb is here. A much finer altar and monument in the Gothic
style is that of the Archdeacon Fernando Diez de Fuente Pelayo, who died
in the memorable year 1492; it is in white marble and adorned with
sculpture with New Testament subjects, a good deal damaged. There are a
few good pictures in this chapel, one attributed to Andrea del Sarto,
and a sculptured genealogy of the Virgin. Of the chapel of Santa Tecla,
perhaps not much else need be said than that it is in the
Churrigueresque style and was founded in 1734. Its best feature is its
‘half-orange’ dome. O’Shea says that there formerly existed on the side
of the baptistry a small chapel dedicated to Santiago, wherein Alfonso
XI. instituted the order of knighthood of La Vanda or the Badge, of
which the kings of Castile were members.
Opening on to the southern aisle, opposite the Capilla de Santa Tecla,
is the cruciform chapel of the Santisimo Cristo de la Agonia, containing
a very ancient, curious, and (it is alleged) miraculous image of Christ.
It is supposed to have been carved by the fearful Nicodemus, and to have
been afterwards found floating in a boat on the sea. It is a grotesque
and yet a weird and impressive object, dressed up after the ridiculous
custom in Spain.
The chapel of the Presentation was founded in 1519 by the Canon Gonzalo
de Lerma, whose noble tomb in the centre of the chapel was executed
during his lifetime by Vigarni. Another fine tomb is here--that of Canon
Jacubo de Bilbao. This chapel possesses a beautiful Virgin and Child
painted on a panel, probably by Sebastiano del Piombo, and sculptures by
Berruguete. The railing is another example of Andino’s craftsmanship.
In the chapel of San Juan de Sahagun are preserved the relics of the
saint, who was a canon of Burgos. Here are also numerous other relics,
chiefly fragments of the bodies of sainted personages, among them two
local martyrs, Centola and Helena. The image of the Virgin of Oca is
fabled to have testified by a nod to the promise of marriage made by a
faithless Don Juan to a damsel--a silly story also told of the Cristo de
la Vega at Toledo. Simon, the last Bishop of Oca, is buried in this
chapel, and also the Blessed Lesmes, who is invoked by sufferers from
nephritic disorders. More interesting than any of these things is the
Cristo de la Agonia, a painting signed by El Greco.
In the chapel of the Visitation is the handsome tomb of the founder, the
Bishop de Cartagena; and in the seventeenth-century chapel of San
Enrique repose the remains of the bishops of Oca, and those of the
founder, Bishop Peralta--contained in a beautiful tomb of alabaster,
beneath a superb kneeling effigy in bronze. Of alabaster is also the
beautiful flooring of the chapel; and of bronze, the fine eagle lectern.
We now reach the sacristy, a great part of which is in the bad style of
the eighteenth century. There is some good carving, which, indeed, is
not rare in Spain; but the pictures ascribed to Murillo and other
masters are all very doubtful. A jasper table is among the most
interesting objects. We complete the circuit of the church by a visit to
the large chapel of Santiago, designed in the sixteenth century by Juan
de Vallejo. It is considered to be the parish church of Burgos. The
Apostle of Spain is shown on horseback on the high altar, and again on
the beautiful _reja_. Here lies the Abbot of San Quirce, one of the
Velasco family, beneath a tomb worthy of his illustrious ancestry. Not
far off is the sarcophagus of the Astudillos, one of whom was the
founder of the chapel of the Three Kings at Cologne. There are other
interesting tombs in this chapel, among the oldest being that of Bishop
de Villacreces, who died in 1463.
On the south-east side of the cathedral are the cloisters, among the
most beautiful buildings of their kind. Street believes them to date
from between the years 1280 and 1350. They form a quadrangle, the
dimensions of each gallery being 90 feet by 22 feet. The cloisters are
entered through a fine pointed arch, near the chapel of the Visitation,
adorned with statues and heraldic devices. The head of St. Francis of
Assisi is said to be an actual portrait. Other statues are those of the
Blessed Virgin, St. Gabriel, David, and Isaiah. The tympanum is
sculptured with the Baptism of Christ--the rite being administered to
Christ _seated_. The reliefs on the doors, which are of later date, and
were the gift of Bishop Acuña, are worthy of their splendid setting.
The cloisters are in two stages, the lower being plain, the upper very
ornate. The windows are ogival, of four lights, and freely decorated
with traceries and foliage. The angles and niches are adorned with good
statues. Among these are the effigies of St. Fernando and his wife, Doña
Beatriz, each holding a ring in commemoration of their marriage at
Burgos. The statues of Santiago and Abraham date from the thirteenth
century. There are numerous tombs and doorways, all well sculptured. Of
this cloister Street remarks, ‘I know none altogether more interesting
and more varied, or more redolent of those illustrations of and links
with the past, which are of the very essence of all one’s interest in
such works.’
In a chapel leading from the cloisters is attached to the wall one of
the celebrated trunks filled with sand which the Cid palmed off as
security for a loan upon an unusually simple-minded son of Israel. It is
antique and solid enough to date from those days at all events. Close by
is the recumbent effigy and tomb of Juan Cuchiller, the faithful servant
of Enrique III. In adjacent chapels may be seen the splendid tombs of
Canon Santander, a sixteenth-century work, with an exquisite relief of
the Virgin and Child; of Canon Aguilar, who died in 1482; and the
monuments of other canons, chaplains, and knights.
Adjoining the cloisters is the Chapter House, or Sala Capitular, with a
fine _artesonado_ ceiling, and a cornice of blue and white majolica,
around which run verses from the Proverbs. The room contains a
Crucifixion signed _Greco_, and a St. John the Divine doubtfully
attributed to Murillo. There remains to be seen the old sacristy, a
spacious room over forty feet square, and with corbels quaintly carved
with scenes from a lion hunt. The treasury of Burgos is not as rich as
that of Toledo or Seville; but it contains some magnificent and
seemingly ancient vestments, beautifully carved presses, and a long
series of portraits of the occupants of the episcopal see. Below the
cloister a lower story was built; but the arches are now blocked up and
it is neglected, though abounding in interesting tombs and monuments of
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
The south-west side of this grand cathedral is shut in by the
archbishop’s palace.
LAS HUELGAS
The other great ecclesiastical building of Burgos belongs nearly to the
same period as the cathedral. The Cistercian convent of Santa Maria la
Real de las Huelgas was founded in 1180 by Alfonso VIII. and his Queen
Eleanor, daughter of our Henry II.--to propitiate the Heavenly Powers
after the rout of Alarcos, it is asserted by some. The architect
appears to have been a countryman of his royal mistress--an Angevin--and
his work was certainly copied in those churches which were built by
Spaniards.
This historic pile stands about a mile from the city, on the road to
Valladolid. The name is derived from the verb _holgar_ (to rest), the
site having been formerly occupied by pleasure in grounds. Many of the
most striking events in Castilian history were enacted here. Here Edward
I. was knighted by Alfonso el Sabio; here, in after years, the Black
Prince lodged, fresh from his much-to-be-regretted victory at Navarrete.
Many royal personages were wedded here, and not a few were buried here
besides. Great was the dignity of the abbess, who exercised ‘the high,
the low, and the middle justice,’ or, in other words, could hang
offenders on her own gallows; whose authority extended over half a
hundred towns and villages, and who was exempt from all episcopal
jurisdiction or control. Though shorn of her proudest prerogatives and
much of her wealth, the abbess of Las Huelgas is still one of the
greatest ladies of Spain. The rule, too, of St. Bernard is observed with
primitive strictness, and the high-born nuns refuse to permit even the
most sober of archæologists to examine their cloisters.
A thirteenth-century postern leads into the _compás_ or square formed by
the convent, a graceful fourteenth-century tower, and the ancient palace
of the Castilian monarchs, now a school. The church, built by St.
Ferdinand in 1279, is of the usual cruciform plan. It is stern, simple,
very pure Gothic, despite the restorations and alterations effected in
successive ages. The nave is inaccessible to strangers, and is reserved
exclusively to the nuns, who may be seen, through the screen, assisting
at the offices in their grandly carved stalls. We loiter in the
transept, and notice the lofty lantern over the crossing, and the
revolving pulpit from which St. Vincent Ferrer is said to have preached,
though the date of its construction (1560) may be discerned carved upon
it. The chancel, with its green tapestries woven with gold--the gift of
Philip the Handsome--is flanked on either side by two chapels, but our
interest centres in the nave, of which we can only obtain a glimpse
through the grille. The tombs facing us are those of the founders,
Alfonso VIII. and Eleanor Plantagenet. The conqueror of Las Navas is
shown on a relief, enthroned, handing the charter of the abbey to the
first abbess. To the right of these tombs lies Queen Berenguela, mother
of St. Ferdinand; and farther back in the aisles are the sarcophagi of
thirty-six members of the royal house of Spain, among them the ‘Emperor’
Alfonso VII., Sancho I., Enrique I., and Margaret of Austria, Duchess of
Savoy. Anne of Austria, daughter of the great Don John, was the last
princess entombed within these venerable precincts. Unapproachable by
visitors is the chapel of Santiago, wherein is preserved an effigy of
St. James, which by means of some hidden mechanism could place the crown
on the royal brow and confer the accolade of knighthood.
The remarkable Moorish fabric, generally believed to have been a trophy
of the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, is hung in the nun’s choir, but a
replica may be seen hanging in the chancel. A detailed description of
this interesting relic is contained in Riaño’s _Spanish Arts_. Amador de
los Rios rejects the tradition that this was the Almohade standard, and
thinks it was the curtain or flap of the Amir’s tent, taken in the
battle. Riaño goes farther, and opines that it was an offering made, not
by Alfonso VIII., but by the eleventh monarch of that name. Adopting
this theory, it remains probable that the fabric was one of the spoils
of war, for the character of the texts from the Koran woven upon it are
a sufficient proof that it could not have been worked by Moorish weavers
under Christian direction.
Not far from Las Huelgas is the Hospital del Key, built by Alfonso VIII.
as a hospice for pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. There is little
about this building now to suggest a twelfth-century origin. Rebuilt in
the sixteenth century and restored by Carlos III., it has been styled
one of the finest specimens of the plateresque in Castile. The Puerta de
Romeros exhibits a bewildering wealth of ornament, against which stands
out, as the most interesting features, the vigorous figure of the
apostle, and the crowned busts of Alfonso and Eleanor. The court is
bordered on two sides by cloisters, the symmetry of which is marred by
the excess of arches. The cornice, with its heraldic achievement and
busts, is, on the whole, in good taste. One side of the court is formed
by the façade of the church, restored in the plateresque style by Carlos
III. in 1771. The original structure may be recognised in some
dilapidated and deserted chambers with Mudejar ceilings, adjacent to the
Magdalena arcade. There are some graceful Mudejar capitals and Arabic
inscriptions of the thirteenth century likewise to be seen in the
stables of the Hospice.