Iglesia de Santa Cruz: The Old Cathedral of Cádiz
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Castile, Spanish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page8 sections
History
Iglesia de Santa Cruz, also known as the Old Cathedral of Cádiz, is a medieval Christian church in Cádiz, Spain, founded in 1262–1263 by order of Alfonso X of Castile and León during the pontificate of Pope Urban IV. The original Gothic church was intended to become Alfonso X’s burial church, although the king was ultimately buried in Seville.
Foundation and medieval development
The first church was built over the remains of an Arab mosque. Excavations beneath the adjacent Old Episcopal Palace have raised the possibility that the site also contained a primitive Paleo-Christian or Visigothic temple, or the Roman Theatre of Gades, the ancient Roman name for Cádiz. The chronology of these earlier remains and their relationship to the church remains unresolved. Studies by Ramón Corzo were still unpublished in 2006.
The original Gothic building and its coffered roof were altered during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These changes formed part of the church’s medieval and early modern development before a violent destruction transformed its appearance.
Destruction and rebuilding
In 1596, an Anglo-Dutch fleet attacked, invaded, and sacked Cádiz. The forces were commanded by Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, an English admiral, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, an English nobleman and military commander. The church was burned and almost completely destroyed. Only the entrance arch and the ribbed vault of the baptistery chapel survived.
Reconstruction began in 1597 under Ginés Martín de Aranda, the diocese’s master builder, following a project by the military engineer Cristóbal de Rojas. The rebuilt church was completed and consecrated on 15 June 1602, then opened for worship on 29 May 1603. Its new form combined Mannerism, a late Renaissance style, with Baroque architecture, known for more dynamic forms and elaborate spatial and decorative effects.
Cathedral and parish church
The church was enriched during the second half of the seventeenth century, a period that coincided with population growth and Cádiz’s prosperity through trade with the Indies. It served as the cathedral of the Diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta until 1838, when the cathedral seat moved to the New Cathedral of Cádiz.
After the transfer of the cathedral seat, Iglesia de Santa Cruz continued as a parish church under the dedication of the Vera Cruz, meaning “True Cross,” a Christian devotion associated with the cross of Jesus’s crucifixion. Worship has included intermittent periods of activity, and the church has a parish priest and regular Masses. It is protected as a Site of Cultural Interest, a Spanish legal designation for protected cultural property, under the name “Former Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross.” The protection procedure began in 1987, and the designation was issued on 15 June 2009.
Remains
The surviving seventeenth-century church has a rectangular hall plan with three naves and a false transept. Tuscan columns, a relatively plain classical column type, divide the naves and support stilted semicircular arches. The interior is covered by esquifada vaults, a type of vaulted ceiling, while the crossing carries a hemispherical dome raised on pendentives, curved structural elements that support a dome over a square or polygonal crossing. The exterior of the roof and vaults is covered with multicoloured tiles dating from the early seventeenth century.
Bell tower and cathedral complex
A separate bell tower dating from the fifteenth century stands apart from the church. Its first two levels contain a stairwell, while its third level connects with the Casa de la Contaduría, which houses the cathedral museum. The tower has a rectangular plan and is crowned by a spire covered with polychrome tiles. The Tower of the Sagrario, built in the second half of the eighteenth century by Torcuato Cayón, is another later element of the complex. Its name refers to the Sagrario, the sacramental or tabernacle area of a Catholic church.
Chapels and furnishings
The church contains the Chapel of the Genoese, the Chapel of the Vizcayans, and a Chapel of the Relics. The Chapel of the Vizcayans contains The Last Communion of Saint Ferdinand, painted by Antonio Hidalgo in 1683. The high altarpiece was made by Alejandro de Saavedra, while paintings and images in the church resulted from the patronage of Bishop Alonso Vázquez de Toledo.
Portals and surviving decorative work
The lateral portal is made of Genoese marble and was produced by Andreoli. Together with the surviving entrance arch and the ribbed vault of the baptistery chapel, it forms part of the church’s architectural fabric across its medieval, post-1596, and later phases.
