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.
Historical context
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.
Stages of building
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.
Exterior
Western facade and atrium
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.
Main doors
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.
Towers of the main facade
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.
Southern facade or del mercado
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.
Puerta del mercado
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.
Torre del Gallo
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.
Northern facade
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.
Eastern facade
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.
Interior
The cathedral, is currently composed of a Latin cross plant, with three naves, ample transept and head with a large apse, which it contains the main chapel, surrounded by the ambulatory.
It is 80 meters long by 31 meters in width, from one extreme to the other crossing, and 28 m, in length, in the other naves. The central nave, just over 10 meters wide, is 28 m high, the lateral 21 m.
The naves are separated, by enormous pillars, which are each composed of twenty columns attached to capitals of vegetable theme, where the arc-doubleaus and formero arcs are supported. From the capitals, the stony nerves, which form the ogival vaults of rib vault, in general are of simple crossery (with two diagonal nerves), although there are two sexpartite vaults, on the sides of the transept or even octopartite, on the lantern tower. Three of the four pillars that frame the choir are different from the rest of the building, consisting of large cylindrical columns with Romanesque ornamentation in the lower part and Gothic in the upper one.
Left nave or that of Gospel
The plant of the temple was changing with time, since in the beginning there were no lateral chapels and this is still the case of the Epistle nave that only has an altar and some sepulcher attached to the wall of the choir, on the other hand, on the Gospel nave, chapels were built that reach the adjoining wall of the cloister.
Parish of San Pedro
The first chapel on the left side at the foot of the cathedral is known as the parish of San Pedro. It is located, in the place where there had been old monastic dependencies, in the west gallery of the cloister with entrance by the cathedral. It is work of the 15th century, built in 1455 by order of Bishop Fernando Luján (1449–1465) and which was dedicated to Corpus Christi. Its cover is Plateresque, made by Francisco de Baeza, where the shield of the patronage bishop is shown. The grid is Gothic-Plateresque of Juan Francés made in 1533. At the end of this century, the parish of San Pedro was moved to the right of the main chapel and since then it has been known by this name.
It was greatly transformed and enlarged by the bishop Pedro de Godoy in 1675, who added three sections to the vault with the same Gothic style of starry rib vault, in spite of corresponding the work at the end 17th century. The main altar presides over an image of Saint Peter, and under this statue is the Santísima Trinidad work of the sculptor Mariano Bellver y Collazos of 1861, carved in wood and polychrome. It is represented by an iconography inspired by the models of Spanish Baroque: Father God seated, holding in his left hand globe, beside him also seated Jesus Christ carrying a cross and among them the Holy Spirit with Dove shape. The group is located on a cloud in which two angels contemplate the scene surrounded by cherubs. The plant is rectangular, quite elongated, since it occupies the entire western part of the cloister.
On the wall of this chapel is the sepulcher of the first founding bishop Fernando Luján of the 15th century, it is Gothic with scenes on three reliefs of the life of saint Catherine of Alexandria placed on top of the recumbent figure, this sculpture of the bishop. It is located on an arch that gives way to the baptistery and in front of the viewer, it was probably moved from its original place during the works of the 17th century, you can read an inscription that says: "El señor obispo Lujan. Año MCCCCLXV. Último electo por el cabildo".
Puerta de San Valero
It shows a mixture of styles such as Renaissance pilasters, Mudéjar arabesques and Gothic arches, although it is from the beginning of the 16th century, it was built by Domingo Hergueta. This door gives entrance to the cloister, where is the chapel of San Valero, the oldest in the cathedral, with a Romanesque floor and a Gothic iron gate.
Chapel of la Anunciación or that of la Purísima
Founded in 1515 by the provisor Fernando Montemayor, its magnificent portal is decorated to the "Cisneros style", consists of a low part of Plateresque pilasters where small niches are found that house images of Saint Michael and Saint James, in the arch the ornamentation is composed of geometrical Mudéjar elements of intersecting lines, forming figures of starred laqueus and polygonal between which are shields of the founder of the chapel and in the frieze that also follows it of laqueus is the shield of the cathedral chapter with a scene of The Annunciation under Gothic arches, topped by a cornice, very decorated of Arab type, with a figure of lion, in each end, the crowning of the portal constitutes some arcs in Gothic style with the representation of a Calvary in the central point. The grid is Gothic, by Juan Francés, with twisted bars and Renaissance ornamental themes. The interior of the chapel is covered with a Gothic vault and on its left wall is the sepulcher of Fernando Montemayor, made in Plateresque and polychrome style, there is the sepulcher with the statue lying within a semicircular arcosolium, at the back of which there is also a polychrome relief with the Eternal Father in the center and at its sides two angels in prayer. Opposite this sepulcher is the one of Bishop Eustaquio Nieto y Martín.
Chapel of San Marcos
The facade is Gothic, the intrados, shows a great Gothic Plateresque decoration. The commissioner of this chapel was Juan Ruiz de Pelegrina who has his burial inside the chapel. There is an altarpiece with six 16th-century painting boards by Francisco del Rincón.
Sepulcher of Juan González Monjua and Antón González
In the sepulcher, which some authors attribute to two brothers, but that, in fact, were uncle and nephew, draws attention the way in which they are placed the figures of both, which represents Juan González Monjua is located on the sarcophagus and forming an angle against the wall, there is that of his nephew Antón González, both have very similar garments and cover their heads with bonnets. On the front of the sepulcher there is a shield engraved in the center, supported by two angels, with the inscription:
AQUÍ ESTAN SEPULTADOS LOS REVER. SRES. D. ANTON GONZALEZ E D. JUAN GONZALEZ MAESTRESCUELAS.