The current building of the Cathedral of Santander are two overlapping churches
of Gothic style.
The lower, was built in the first third of s. XIII is the parish of Christ
and the superior was built during that century and had to be rebuilt and
expanded in 1941.
In the Middle Ages it was the Abbey of San Emeterio and San Celedonio,
later it was the Collegiate Church of the Holy Bodies and later in 1754 in the
Cathedral of Santander.
THE LOW CHURCH OR THE CHRIST
It consists of three
naves with four sections, plus the apses (part of the church located at the
head, which houses the altar table). It measures 31 meters long and 18 meters
wide. It is accessed by two doors, its style is transition from Romanesque to Gothic.
During the archaeological excavations (1883) on the floor of the Church of
Christ appeared abundant remains of a primitive Roman settlement, thermal
facilities and fortification. You can see part of these excavations behind the
area of glazed floor. The chamber of the Roman oven was where the heads of
the Holy Martyrs were kept during the Middle Ages: San Emeterio and San
Celedonio.
THE HIGH CHURCH
The main access door
opens to the cloister on the south.
In the s. XVI and XVII
chapels were built nearby and in 1941 after the fire had to make some reforms.
It was reopened to the cult in 1953, with double capacity thanks to the
transept, dome, apse and ambulatory. The Gothic style was respected in the
recovered part.
The little decoration
consists of corbels, capitals, keys and a frieze of both vegetal and historical
character. At the doors of access, the concentrated decorative abundance
attracts attention where you can see real shields of castles and lions from
Spain.
INSIDE
As the fire of 1941
burned the interior of the high church, most of the altarpieces except one or
come from other churches or are new.
Inside the Cathedral of
Santander there are several chapels where you will find:
- The marble pile that has Arabic inscriptions
brought by the Cantabrian sailors conquerors of Seville.
- On the ambulatory, contemplate the beautiful
fresco on a grandstand.
- Altar with reliquary of medieval origin.
- The choir of the Cabildo
- On the outside of the tower we find the
monumental statues of the 4 evangelists.
- In the nave of the North is the tomb of the
Santander-born writer Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo.
THE CLOISTER
It is a sober Gothic.
The naves are closed to the garden by arched galleries and slender
mullions, reinforced by robust curved arches.
All the ships were marked in chapels, of which two stand out:
- The one of San Pedro where the general councils of the town were celebrated.
- The one of Santiago that was built by the important family of real shipowners of the Escalante.
Pics:
-
https://www.yelp.es/biz_photos/catedral-de-santander-santander
-http://eltomavistasdesantander.com/2013/06/20/la-iglesia-del-cristo-se-construyo-sobre-una-terma-romana/
-Marta.
