Cathedral of Santa María of Calahorra: Seat of a Historic Diocese in Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Castile, Spanish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page34 sections
History
The Cathedral of Santa María of Calahorra is a Catholic cathedral in Calahorra, Spain, and the seat of the Diocese of Calahorra and La Calzada-Logroño. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, it stands beside the Cidacos River in El Arenal, the traditional site where the Christian martyr saints Emeterius and Celedonius were beheaded around AD 300. The present building was begun in 1484 and developed through the early eighteenth century, combining late Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical elements.
The martyrdom shrine and the restored diocese
The cathedral occupies an unusual position outside Calahorra’s historic walls because the place was regarded as the scene of the saints’ martyrdom. Aurelius Prudentius, a poet of the fourth century, described a baptistery there and associated the site with pilgrimage, veneration, and healings. A Visigothic baptistery is also said to have stood on the site before being destroyed during the Arab conquest.
An early shrine was eventually replaced by a Romanesque cathedral. The episcopal see, an established bishop’s seat, was restored under Christian rule in 1045. Emeterius and Celedonius were traditionally considered Roman brothers and legionaries who converted to Christianity before their execution. Their relics remain in the cathedral and continue the connection between the building and Calahorra’s patron saints.
A tradition later represented in the Chapel of the Holy Martyrs relates that the relics were transferred from the monastery of Leyre to Calahorra. The story may have developed as a medieval legend during the Reconquista, the long expansion of Christian kingdoms into territories governed by Muslim rulers in the Iberian Peninsula. The relics’ association with Calahorra, however, is central to the cathedral’s history and devotional identity.
Construction from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth century
Work on the present cathedral began in 1484 and proceeded through a series of successive phases. Financial difficulties extended the building campaign, as did the ambition to create a cathedral suited to the importance of the diocese. Biscayan architects and builders directed much of the work, with members of the Carmelite Order also participating.
The section from the west end to the crossing was built between 1484 and 1526 under Pedro, Juan, and Martín de Olave. The choir was begun in 1525, while the presbytery was completed between 1565 and 1576. The ambulatory followed between 1595 and 1614 under Juan Pérez de Solarte, and the apsidal chapels were completed by Juan de Urriola around 1624. The sequence also included the cloister, parts of the tower, the east end, crossing, nave, chapels, north door, upper bell stage, upper tower, and atrium.
The Council of Trent, the sixteenth-century Catholic council that promoted reforms in doctrine, worship, and church practice, influenced the cathedral’s arrangement. The choir was lowered and the east end rebuilt, requiring changes to the crossing and the replacement of two Romanesque lateral chapels. These alterations led to a dispute with the Counts of Aguilar, who owned the chapel on the left.
The principal construction was regarded as complete in 1704, when the main facade was finished. The eighteenth century then concentrated on the interior. Chapels were opened, screens installed, altarpieces constructed and covered with painted decoration, and the sacristy enlarged and remodeled. Juan Miguel Mortela, Archdeacon of Berberiego, a senior diocesan administrator, exerted particularly strong artistic and organizational influence from 1724 to 1774. He directed iconographic programs, organized works, financed improvements, and brought prominent artists to Calahorra.
Facades, furnishings, and later changes
The present principal facade replaced a late-fifteenth- or early-sixteenth-century Gothic front. Built between 1680 and 1704 by the brothers Juan and Santiago Raón, it adopted the form of a Baroque altarpiece with three levels and a triangular pediment. Antonio de Beriñaga added the upper section and pediment in a Neoclassical style in 1772. The facade’s sculptures of Saint Peter and Saint Paul have strong stylistic similarities to those at the Basilica of San Gregorio Ostiense at Sorlada, suggesting that they came from the same sculptor or workshop.
The cathedral’s interior received a Romanist high altarpiece, a classicizing form of Spanish religious art influenced by Renaissance models, as well as Baroque radial chapels around the ambulatory. The tower was enlarged, and the building’s furnishings continued to evolve. In 1900, a fire damaged the high altar and destroyed ornaments. Rehabilitation lasted until 1904, when a new high-altar retable was installed.
Liturgical changes brought another transformation in 1958. The presbytery was enlarged and the vía sacra, a railed passage between the altar and choir, was removed. The Chapel of Saint Peter was restored in 1996, as was the present organ. Restoration of the tower and bells began in 2005 and ended in 2006, when the bells were repositioned to improve their sound.
The cathedral was declared a historic-artistic monument within Spain’s National Artistic Treasure on 3 June 1931. It is also protected as a Bien de Interés Cultural, Spain’s designation for protected cultural heritage. The sacristy and cloister now house the Diocesan Museum, whose collections include a twelfth-century Bible, a fifteenth-century Custodia del Ciprés donated by Henry IV of Castile, an eighteenth-century Rococo monstrance known as the “Angel,” a sixteenth-century shell-and-tin-filigree vessel, and a Jewish Torah.
Remains
The cathedral is built principally from red calcareous sandstone belonging to the Alfaro formation. Its Latin-cross plan has a long central axis crossed by a transept, with three naves, an ambulatory around the east end, a crossing chapel or high chapel, sixteen chapels, a cloister, and a sacristy. The central nave rises higher and extends wider than the lateral naves, which are separated from it by six substantial pillars. An extensive atrium precedes the building, and a wind rose is set into the center of its pavement.
Exterior and circulation spaces
Baroque principal facade
The main facade, also called the Puerta del Moral, is a Baroque composition organized like an architectural altarpiece. Its three levels contain freestanding columns, Corinthian and Serlian capitals, and abundant vegetal ornament, including garlands, fruits, and flowers. The upper level and triangular pediment, added by Antonio de Beriñaga in 1772, introduce Neoclassical forms. The statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul relate closely in style to sculpture at the Basilica of San Gregorio Ostiense at Sorlada.
Puerta de San Jerónimo
The north entrance, known as the Puerta de San Jerónimo, dates from 1559. Its lower portion is Plateresque, a richly ornamented style that developed between the late Gothic and early Renaissance periods, while the upper portion retains Gothic reminiscences dating from 1520. Its tympanum shows the Coronation of the Virgin attended by Emeterius and Celedonius. The entrance was also called the Puerta de Fosal because it once stood beside the cathedral cemetery. Two trumpet-playing angels announce the Resurrection of the Dead.
Atrium and entrance level
The entrance is reached by descending several steps. Earlier temples may have had entrances at river level, while later flood defenses raised the doors above the surrounding ground. The atrium’s central wind rose provides a marked feature in the pavement and forms part of the approach to the cathedral.
Cloister
The cloister lies against the south wall between the transept and the last chapel. An arched doorway near the Chapel of Santa Lucía connects it with the interior. Its vaults have star-shaped ribs and crossing arches. Construction began while the nave was being built, but the work was suspended in 1553, leaving the cloister unfinished. The space forms part of the Diocesan Museum.
Tower and bells
The rectangular tower stands to the right of the principal facade and predates the present cathedral. It has eight levels: five medieval lower stages, two Renaissance stages that decrease in section, and a nineteenth-century brick turret with four corner pinnacles covered in glazed industrial tiles. The lower floors housed the bell ringer, other cathedral workers, and their families, while the three uppermost levels form the belfry.
The belfry contains three Roman-style swinging bells, an unusually large number for the region, where two alternating bells were more usual. Six bells serve liturgical ringing. Beside them stands a mechanically wound electric clock made around 1960 by Manufacturas Blasco of Roquetas. A cross-shaped wooden rattle was not restored after the tower’s restoration.
Nave, choir, and high chapel
Choir
The rectangular Renaissance choir measures approximately 14 metres long and 7.5 metres wide. Its stalls occupy the two longer sides and one shorter side. Pedro de Olave began the work in 1525, and Guillén de Holanda completed the stalls in 1539 with assistance from Juan de Hortega de Sosa and Juan de Artiaga.
After the stalls were moved in 1614, Pedro de Lazcano of Pamplona made a Classicist screen for the choir to a design by the architect Pedro de Argüello. A bequest of 1,000 ducats from Licenciado Martín de Lizaor paid for the screen.
High Chapel and retable
The Chapel of the High Altar contains a retable, an elaborate architectural structure placed behind an altar, commissioned by Bishop Pedro Manso de Zúñiga from Pedro González de San Pedro. Juan Bazcardo completed its first phase in 1639 after González’s death, and José Bravo added gilding and wall paintings in 1726. Juan Miguel Mortela commissioned a silver altar frontal in 1773; it is now kept in the Chapel of the Visitation.
Two reliquary urns in the High Chapel hold the remains of Emeterius and Celedonius. Made by the Burgos silversmith Francisco de Soria and another silversmith possibly identified as Pedro Vélez of Calahorra, the urns were completed in 1513. They consist mainly of silver worked by repoussé and chasing, techniques that raise and refine relief on a metal surface, and were subsequently gilded.
Trascoro, or Chapel of the Kings
The Trascoro, also called the Chapel of the Kings, contains a Rococo retable made by Manuel Adán and Julián Martínez between 1750 and 1757, with assistance from Andrés de Bolibe and Ramón de Falces. It has one principal level, three vertical divisions, and an attic, measuring about 11 metres high and 11.5 metres wide.
Two works by Juan Bazcardo from around 1630 were incorporated into the retable. The central relief represents the Adoration of the Magi, while the Christ of the Agony was formerly placed at the top of the structure and has since been moved.
Chapels around the cathedral
Chapel of Saint John the Baptist
The Chapel of Saint John the Baptist has a Churrigueresque retable from 1717. Churrigueresque is an especially exuberant form of Spanish Baroque ornament. The chapel also contains a Renaissance statue of Saint John and frescoes painted by Domingo de Rada in 1774.
Baptismal Chapel
The Baptismal Chapel has a retable based on that of Saint John the Baptist, supplemented by statues of Saint Blaise and Saint Anthony. Its large lobed Gothic baptismal font marks the traditional location of the martyrdom of Emeterius and Celedonius.
Chapel of the Visitation
The Chapel of the Visitation contains a Plateresque triptych retable commissioned in 1520 by Pedro Ximénez de Cornago, Archdeacon of Berberiego. Its central section presents the Visitation and the Crucifixion, surrounded by reliefs of scenes from the life of Jesus. The wings contain paintings of apostles and popularly venerated saints.
The chapel also holds a silver altar frontal made by José Ochoa Iturralde in the last third of the eighteenth century. The 1900 fire severely damaged it. In 1924, the Valencian silversmiths José and Miguel Jannini restored the frontal, retaining its iconography while changing the arrangement, removing Rococo ornament, and smoothing the background.
Gothic tomb of Bishop Esteban
The Gothic tomb of Bishop Esteban contains the remains of Esteban de Sepúlveda, who was regarded as saintly. Made shortly after his death, the tomb’s reliefs are badly eroded because of the poor quality of the stone. The tomb chest measures 67 centimetres wide, 44 centimetres high, and 172 centimetres long, while its lid measures 70 centimetres wide and 190 centimetres long.
The lid shows the recumbent bishop in episcopal vestments, holding a maniple and crozier, a bishop’s pastoral staff. Angels at the corners hold the chains of censers. The frieze presents the Epiphany with proskynesis, a gesture of deep reverence, and a funeral office. Scenes of Saint Stephen’s martyrdom appear at the foot, while scenes of Esteban’s consecration as bishop appear at the head. The tomb has been attributed to the master or workshop responsible for the tomb of Urraca Díaz de Haro at Cañas.
Chapel of the Child Jesus
Dated to 1735, the Chapel of the Child Jesus has a Baroque retable donated by Dean Pedro de Oñate. Its sculptures represent Saint Joseph, the Virgin, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Elizabeth.
Chapel of the Holy Spirit
The Chapel of the Holy Spirit, dedicated to Pentecost, was built and altered by Juan de Urruela, master architect and builder of the cathedral from 1629 to 1642. The main work was completed in 1634, and modifications commissioned in 1635 continued until 1638. Its seventeenth-century Baroque paintings are attributed to Francisco del Plano.
Four semicircular arches divide the dome, which is crowned by clouds and angel heads. Floral motifs separate the painted sections. One presents the Virgin with the apostles John and Peter, while the others show groups of three contemplative apostles. The drum has floral decoration, and the pendentives contain nude angels in ocher, gray, and bluish tones within circles of vegetal ornament. The chapel also has a Classicist retable and a painting of Pentecost.
Chapel of the Virgin of the Pillar
The Chapel of the Virgin of the Pillar contains a Churrigueresque retable made by José de San Juan in 1705, with sculptures by Juan de Camporredondo. Francisco del Plano painted the dome, pendentives, and two false balcony murals between 1711 and 1713.
Chapel of the Holy Martyrs
The Chapel of the Holy Martyrs is the largest and central chapel of the ambulatory. Dedicated to Emeterius and Celedonius, it has a Rococo retable made by Manuel Romero in 1750 that depicts their beheading. José Bejes painted the side pictures and frescoes.
A large oil painting titled Transfer of the Relics, approximately 6 metres wide and 4 metres high, dates from 1765. It illustrates the tradition that the saints’ relics were moved from Leyre to the cathedral. The chapel also contains a large eighteenth-century painting of Emeterius and Celedonius.
Chapel of the Christ of the Pelota
The Chapel of the Christ of the Pelota contains a fourteenth-century sculpture. Its name refers to a popular story in which the figure supposedly freed one hand from the cross to identify the culprit in a homicide committed during a ball game. The sculpture belonged to a Descent from the Cross group, and Christ’s detached arm results from the representation of the figure being lowered from the cross.
Chapel of Saint Joseph
Construction of the Chapel of Saint Joseph began in 1631. Juan Miguel Mortela brought its image of Saint Joseph from Madrid in 1761; the sculpture is attributed to José Ramírez. The Calahorra carpenters’ guild enlarged the chapel and built its retable, which was gilded in 1768. The altar also has a sculpture of the Child Jesus carrying the flowering staff associated with Saint Joseph. Symbols connected with carpenters’ guilds resemble Masonic imagery, raising the possibility that the chapel served as a meeting place for Freemasons.
Chapel of the Immaculate Conception
The Chapel of the Immaculate Conception dates from 1737. Jacinto Echeverría directed the project, designed its plan, and executed its architectural framework. Julián Martínez and Joaquín de Unceta made the principal sculpture, while Juan Tornes, Miguel Bergua, and Ramón Laplana produced other sculptures. The retable was gilded in 1742.
Chapel of Saint Anne
The Chapel of Saint Anne contains the burial of Bishop Juan Piñeiro Osorio, who was interred there in 1647.
Chapel of Saint Peter
One of the oldest chapels, the Chapel of Saint Peter dates from 1524. It contains a Plateresque screen and a matching alabaster altar, one of two comparable alabaster altars in the Ebro Valley, the other being the high altar of the Basilica of the Pillar in Zaragoza. French troops during the Peninsular War are believed to have decapitated several images, damaged the columns, and carried out acts of plunder.
A Rococo altar frontal added in the seventeenth century was moved to a wall during the 1996 restoration, allowing the chapel to recover its earlier appearance.
Chapel of Saint Lucy
The Chapel of Saint Lucy has a Rococo retable completed in 1765 and presided over by a Gothic statue of Saint Lucy dating from the sixteenth century. Images of Saint Apollonia, Saint Barbara, and Saint Agatha by Manuel Adán stand within the chapel, which also has a Classicist screen.
Chapel of the Virgin of the Rosary
The Chapel of the Virgin of the Rosary resulted from the enlargement of the Virgin’s retable in 1775. Images of Saint Dominic and Saint Peter González Telmo were added at that time. Joaquín Villanova made the retable, while the Tudela master Sebastián de Sola executed much of its architectural framework.
Organs and museum collections
Organs
The cathedral has had five organs. The first is recorded in 1562, when Miguel de Borgoña repaired and enlarged it. A second, begun in 1646 by Cristóbal Vicente Zapata at the initiative of Bishop Juan Piñeiro Osorio, was repaired by José de Echavarría in 1678, Diego de Orío in 1707, and Bartolomé Sánchez in 1719. Sánchez rebuilt its wind chest, extending its use until 1755.
Bishop Andrés de Porras y Temes commissioned a third organ from Lucas de Tarazona in 1756, installing its Rococo case on the case of its predecessor. Juan Monturus designed a fourth organ in 1796, built between 1816 and January 1818. Ramón Ferreñac of the Basilica of the Pillar in Zaragoza examined and approved it. The organ reused the 1757 case, which survives.
Monturus maintained the instrument until 1837, when the confiscation of church property left insufficient funds for his services. Pedro Roqués then assumed maintenance. A harmonium later replaced much of the organ and remains in the Chapel of the Holy Martyrs. The present, fifth organ was built by Roqués e Hijos in 1917 and restored by Usabiaga Hnos. of Hernani in 1996. It replaced the Monturus organ, removed the back positive and vertical pipes, and received a new console made of American cedar.
Diocesan Museum
The Diocesan Museum occupies the sacristy and cloister. Its holdings include a twelfth-century Bible, the fifteenth-century Custodia del Ciprés, an eighteenth-century Rococo monstrance called the “Angel,” a sixteenth-century vessel made from a sea shell and tin filigree, and a Jewish Torah. Together with the cathedral’s chapels, tombs, relics, and liturgical furnishings, these collections preserve material from the building’s medieval, Renaissance, and later religious history.
