Among books and maps: Discovering Cantabria: Santander's Cathedral

Resultado de imagen de catedral de santander

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.Surprise the arches for such low vaults and the strong pilasters that support the upper church. Most of the capitals and keys have vegetal decoration, in some there is symbolic iconography.

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.

Resultado de imagen de iglesia de cristo catedral de santander

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.

Foto de Catedral de Santander - Santander, Cantabria, EspaÃƒÂ±a

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.

Foto de Catedral de Santander - Santander, Cantabria, EspaÃƒÂ±a. Kirchenpark

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.