The Cathedrals of Northern Spain Part 13

When the Christian religion dawned in the West, two youths, inseparable brothers, and soldiers in the seventh legion stationed in Leon, embraced the true religion and migrated to Calahorra. They were beheaded after being submitted to a series of the most frightful tortures, and their tunics, leaving the bodies from which life had escaped, soared skywards with the saintly souls, to the great astonishment of the Roman spectators. The names of these two martyr saints were Emeterio and Celedonio, who, as we have seen, are wors.h.i.+pped in Santander; besides, they are also the patron saints of Calahorra.

The first Bishop of Calahorra took possession of his see toward the middle of the fifth century; his name was Silvano. Unluckily, he was the only one whose name is known to-day, and yet it has been proven that when the Moors invaded the country two or three hundred years later, the see was removed to Oviedo, later to Alava (near Vitoria, where no remains of a cathedral church are to be seen to-day), and in the tenth century to Najera. One hundred years later, when the King of Navarra, Don Garcia, conquered the Arab fortress at Calahorra, the wandering see was once more firmly chained down to the original spot of its creation (1030; the first bishop _de modernis_ being Don Sancho).

Near by, and in a vale leading to the south from the Ebro, the Moors built a fortress and called it Najera. Conquered by the early kings of Navarra, it was raised to the dignity of one of the cathedral towns of the country; from 950 (first bishop, Theodomio) to 1030 ten bishops held their court here, that is, until the see was removed to Calahorra. Since then, and especially after the conquest of Rioja by Alfonso VI. of Castile, the city's significance died out completely, and to-day it is but a shadow of what it previously had been, or better still, it is an ignored village among ruins.

Still further west, and likewise situated in a vale to the south of the Ebro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada ranks as the third city. Originally its parish was but a suffragan church of Calahorra, but in 1227 it was raised to an episcopal see. Quite recently, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, when church funds were no longer what they had been, only one bishop was appointed to both sees, with an alternative residence in either of the two, that is to say, one prelate resided in Calahorra, his successor in Santo Domingo, and so forth and so on. Since 1850, however, both villages--for they are cities in name only--have lost all right to a bishop, the see having been definitely removed to Logrono, or it will be removed there as soon as the present bishop dies.

But he has a long life, the present bishop!

The origin of Santo Domingo is purely religious. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries a pious individual lived in the neighbourhood whose life-work and ambition it was to facilitate the travelling pilgrims to Santiago in Galicia. He served as guide, kept a road open in winter and summer, and even built bridges across the streams, one of which is still existing to-day, and leads into the town which bears his name.

He had even gone so far as to establish a rustic sort of an inn where the pilgrims could pa.s.s the night and eat (without paying?). He also constructed a church beside his inn. Upon dying, he was canonized Santo Domingo de la Calzada (Domingo was his name, and _calzada_ is old Spanish for highroad). The Alfonsos of Castile were grateful to the humble saint for having saved them the expense and trouble of looking after their roads, and ordained that a handsome church should be erected on the spot where previously the humble inn and chapel had stood. Houses grew up around it rapidly and the dignity of the new temple was raised in consequence.

Of the four cities of Upper Rioja, the only one worthy of the name of city is Logrono, with its historical bridge across the Ebro, a bridge that was held, according to the tradition, by the hero, Ruy Diaz Gaona, and three valiant companions against a whole army of invading Navarrese.

The name Lucronio or Logrono is first mentioned in a doc.u.ment toward the middle of the eleventh century. The date of its foundation is absolutely unknown, and all that can be said is that, once it had fallen into the hands of the monarchs of Castile (1076), it grew rapidly in importance, out-s.h.i.+ning the other three Rioja cities. It is seated on the southern banks of the Ebro in the most fertile part of the whole region, and enjoys a delightful climate. Since 1850 it has been raised to the dignity of an episcopal see.

As regards the architectural remains of the four cities in the Upper Rioja valley, they are similar to those of Navarra, properly speaking, though not so pure in their general lines. In other words, they belong to the decadent period of Gothic art. Moreover, they have one and all been spoiled by ingenious, though dreadful mixtures of plateresque, Renaissance, and grotesque decorative details, and consequently the real remains of the old twelfth and thirteenth century Gothic and Romanesque constructions are difficult to trace.

_Najera._--Absolutely nothing remains of the old Romanesque church built by the king Don Garcia. A new edifice of decadent Gothic, mixed with Renaissance details, and dating from the fifteenth century, stands to-day; it contains a magnificent series of choir stalls of excellent workmans.h.i.+p, and similar to those of Burgos. The cloister, in spite of the Arab-looking geometrical tracery of the ogival arches, is both light and elegant.

This cathedral was at one time used as the pantheon of the kings of Navarra. About ten elaborate marble tombs still lie at the foot of the building.

_Santo Domingo de la Calzada._--The primitive ground-plan of the cathedral has been preserved, a nave and two aisles showing Romanesque strength in the lower and ogival lightness in the upper tiers. But otherwise nothing reminds one of a twelfth or thirteenth century church.

The cloister, of the sixteenth century, is a handsome plateresque-Renaissance edifice, rather small, severe, and cold. The great merit of this church lies in the sepulchral tombs in the different chapels, all of which were executed toward the end of the fifteenth and during the first years of the seventeenth centuries, and any one wis.h.i.+ng to form for himself an idea of this particular branch of Spanish monumental art must not fail to examine such sepulchres as those of Carranza, Fernando Alfonso, etc.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLOISTER OF NaJERA CATHEDRAL]

The effigy of the patron saint (Santo Domingo) is of painted wood clothed in rich silver robes, which form a striking ant.i.thesis to the saint's humble and modest life. The chapel where the latter lies is closed by a gilded iron _reja_ of plateresque workmans.h.i.+p. The saint's body lies in a simple marble sepulchre, said to have been carved by Santo Domingo himself, who was both an architect and a sculptor. The truth of this version is, however, doubtful.

Of the square tower and the princ.i.p.al entrance no remarks need be made, for both are insignificant. The _retablo_ of the high altar has been attributed to Foment, who constructed those of Saragosse and Huesca. The attribution is, however, most doubtful, as shown by the completely different styles employed by the artist of each. Not that the _retablo_ in the Church of Santo Domingo is inferior to Foment's masterworks in Aragon, but the decorative motives of the flanking columns and low reliefs would prove--in case they had been executed by the Aragonese Foment--a departure from the latter's cla.s.sic style.

In one of the niches of the cloister, in a simple urn, lies the heart of Don Enrique, second King of Castile of that name, the half-brother (one of the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds mentioned in a previous chapter and from whom all later Spanish monarchs are descended) of Peter the Cruel. The latter was murdered by his fond relative, who usurped the throne.

_Logrono._--In 1435 Santa Maria la Redonda was raised to a suffragan church of Santo Domingo de la Calzada; about this date the old building must have been almost entirely torn down, as the ogival arches of the nave are of the fifteenth century; so also are the lower windows which, on the west, flank the southern door.

Excepting these few remains, nothing can bring to the tourist's mind the fifteenth-century edifice, and not a single stone can recall the twelfth-century church. For the remaining parts of the building are of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and successive centuries, and to-day the interior is being enlarged so as to make room for the see which is to be removed here from Santo Domingo and Calahorra.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SANTA MARIA LA REDONDA, LOGROnO]

The interior is Roman cruciform with a high and airy central nave, in which stands the choir, and on each hand a rather dark aisle of much smaller dimensions.

The _trascoro_ is the only peculiarity possessed by this church. It is large and circular, closed by an immense vaulting which turns it into a chapel separated from the rest of the church (compare with the Church of the Pillar of Saragosse).

True to the grotesque style to which it belongs, the whole surface of walls and vault is covered with paintings, the former apparently in oil, the latter frescoes. Vixes painted them in the theatrical style of the eighteenth century.

From the outside, the regular features of the church please the eye in spite of the evident signs of artistic decadence. The two towers, high and slender, are among the best produced by the period of decadence in Spain which followed upon Herrero's severe style, if only the uppermost body lacked the circular linterna which makes the spire top-heavy.

Between the two towers, which, when seen from a distance, gain in beauty and lend to the city a n.o.ble and picturesque aspect, the facade, properly speaking, reaches to their second body. It is a hollow, crowned by half a dome in the shape of a sh.e.l.l which in its turn is surmounted by a plateresque cornice in the shape of a long and narrow scroll.

The hollow is a peculiar and daring medley of architectural elegance and sculptural bizarrerie and vice versa. From Madrazo it drew the exclamation that, since he had seen it, he was convinced that not all monuments belonging to the grotesque style were devoid of beauty.

The date of the erection of the western front is doubtless the same as that of the _trascoro_; both are contemporaneous--the author is inclined to believe--with the erection of the Pillar in Saragosse; at least, they resemble each other in certain unmistakable details.

_Calahorra._--The fourth of the cathedral churches of Upper Rioja is that of Calahorra. After the repopulation of the town by Alfonso VI. of Castile in the eleventh century, the bodies of the two martyr saints Emeterio and Celedonio were pulled up out of a well (to be seen to-day in the cloister) where they had been hidden by the Christians, when the Moors conquered the fortress, and a church was built near the same spot. Of this eleventh-century church nothing remains to-day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WESTERN FRONT OF CALAHORRA CATHEDRAL]

In the twelfth century, a new building was begun, but the process of construction continued slowly, and it was not until two hundred years later that the apse was finally finished. The body of the church, from the western front (this latter hideously modern and uninteresting) to the transept, is the oldest part,--simple Gothic of the thirteenth century.

The numerous chapels which form a ring around the church have all been decorated in the grotesque style of the eighteenth century, and with their lively colours, their polychrome statues, and overdone ornamentation, they offer but little interest to the visitor. The _retablo_ of the high altar is one of the largest to be seen anywhere; but the Renaissance elegance of the lower body is completely drowned by the grotesque decoration of the upper half, which was constructed at a later date.

The choir stalls are fine specimens of that style in which the artist preferred an intricate composition to simple beauty. Biblical scenes, surrounded and separated by allegorical personages and symbolical lines in great profusion, show the carver's talent rather than his artistic genius.

IX

SORIA

The Duero River, upon leaving its source at the foot of the Pico de Urbion (near Vinuesa), flows eastward for about fifty miles, then southward for another fifty miles, when it turns abruptly westward on its lengthy journey across the Iberian peninsula.

The circular region, limited on three sides by the river's course, is the historical field of Soria--part of the province of the same name, Numantia, Rome's great enemy and almost the cause of her ruin, lay somewhere in this part of the country, though where is not exactly known, as the great Scipio took care to destroy it so thoroughly that not even a stone remains to-day to indicate where the heroic fortress stood.

In the present day, two cities and two cathedrals are seated on the banks of the Duero within this circle; the one is Soria, the other Osma.

The latter was a Roman town, an early episcopal see, and later an Arab fortress; the former was founded by one of the Alfonsos toward the end of the eleventh century, as a frontier fortress against Aragon to the east, the Moors to the south, and Navarra to the north.

The town grew apace, thanks to the remarkable _fueros_ granted to the citizens, who lived as in a republic of their own making--an almost unique case of self-government to be recorded in the middle ages.

The princ.i.p.al parish church was raised to a suffragan of Osma in the twelfth century. Since then, there has been a continual spirit of rivalry between the two cities, for the former, more important as a town and as the capital of a province, could not bend its head to the ecclesiastical authority of a village like Osma. Throughout the middle ages the jealousy between the two was food for incessant strife. Pope Clement IV., at Alfonso VIII.'s instigation, raised the Collegiate at Soria to an episcopal see independent of Osma, but the hard-headed chapter of the last named city refused to acknowledge the Pope's order, and no bishop was elected or appointed.

This bitter hatred between the two rivals was the origin of many an amusing incident. Upon one occasion the Bishop of Osma, visiting his suffragan church in Soria, had the house in which he was stopping for the night burnt about his ears. He moved off to another house, and on the second night this was also mysteriously set on fire. His lords.h.i.+p did not await the third night, afraid of what might happen, but bolted back to his episcopal palace at Osma.

In 1520 the chapter of the Collegiate in Soria sent a pet.i.tion to the country's sovereign asking him to order the erection of a new church in place of the old twelfth-century building, and in another part of the town. The request was not granted, however, so what did the wily chapter do? It ordered an architect to construct a chapel in the very centre of the church, and when it was completed, admired the work with great enthusiasm, excepting only the pillar in front of it which obstructed the uninterrupted view. This pillar was the real support of the church, and though the chapter was told as much (as though it did not know it!) the architect was ordered to pull it down. After hesitating to do so, the latter acceded: the pillar was pulled down, and with it the whole church tumbled down as well! But the chapter's game was discovered, and it was obliged to rebuild the cathedral on the same spot and with the same materials.

Consequently, the church at Soria is a sixteenth-century building of little or no merit, excepting the western front, which is the only part of the old building that did not fall down, and is a fine specimen of Castilian Romanesque, as well as the cloister, one of the handsomest, besides being one of the few twelfth-century cloisters in Spain, with a double row of slender columns supporting the round-headed arches. This modification of the conventional type lends an aspect of peculiar lightness to the otherwise heavy Romanesque.

As regards the settlement of the strife between Soria and Osma, the see is to-day a double one, like that of Madrid and Alcala. Upon the death of the present bishop, however, it will be transported definitely to Soria, and consequently the inhabitants of the last named city will at last be able to give thanks for the great mercies Allah or the True G.o.d has bestowed upon them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLOISTER OF SORIA CATHEDRAL]

_Osma._--From an historical and architectural point of view, Osma, the rival city on the Duero River, is much more important than Soria.

According to the tradition, St. James preached the Holy Gospel, and after him St. Peter (or St. Paul?), who left his disciple St. Astorgio behind as bishop (91 A. D.). Twenty-two bishops succeeded him, the twenty-third on the list being John I., really the first of whose existence we have any positive proof, for he signed the third council in Toledo in the sixth century. In the eighth century, the Saracens drove the shepherd of the Christian flock northward to Asturias, and it was not until 1100 that the first bishop _de modernis_ was appointed by Archbishop Bernardo of Toledo. The latter's choice fell on Peter, a virtuous French monastic monk, who was canonized by the Pope after his death, and figures in the calendar as St. Peter of Osma.

When the first bishop took possession of his see, he started to build his cathedral. Instead of choosing Osma itself as the seat, however, he selected the site of a convent on the opposite banks of the Duero (to the north), where the Virgin had appeared to a shepherd. Houses soon grew up around the temple and, to distinguish it from Osma, the new city was called Burgo de Osma, a name it still retains.