Santander Cathedral: A Gothic Cathedral and Basilica in Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Castile
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page17 sections
History
Santander Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral and basilica in Santander, Spain, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and serving as the seat of the Diocese of Santander. Its complex stands on Cerro de Somorrostro, an elevated site once surrounded by water and associated with the Roman settlement of Portus Victoriae. The lower church was built during the twelfth century, while the upper church was constructed between the late twelfth and early fourteenth centuries.
Early monastery and collegiate church
The cathedral complex grew over a monastery and abbey dedicated to Saints Emeterius and Celedonius, known as the Abbey of the Holy Bodies. An earlier church stood here by the eighth century, preserving relics attributed to the two martyrs. Tradition holds that people fleeing the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula brought their skulls from Calahorra by boat and placed them in a cave beneath the church.
The institution became a collegiate church in 1131 through the action of Alfonso VII, known as the Emperor, a twelfth-century king of León and Castile. A collegiate church was served by a college of clergy under a dean or provost rather than governed as a cathedral seat. After Alfonso VIII granted Santander a fuero, or medieval municipal charter defining the town’s legal rights and privileges, in 1187, reconstruction began in the form of the present complex.
Medieval construction
The upper church was built in the thirteenth century in a sober Gothic style, and the Gothic cloister followed during the first half of the fourteenth century. The earlier collegiate church had three naves. A fourth was later created in an area formerly occupied by the abbot’s palaces and other chapels. The former collegiate church became known as the Collegiate Church of the Holy Bodies.
The principal portal was erected around 1230 during the reign of Fernando III, the thirteenth-century king who united the crowns of Castile and León. Its sculpture includes an early representation of the combined arms of Castile and León, with castles and lions. Fernando III’s son Sancho served as abbot of the site.
Expansion and cathedral status
The church was enlarged during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when several chapels were added. It also served as Santander’s cemetery. On exceptional occasions, the chapter house and adjoining nave hosted meetings of the General Council of the Town of Santander.
The Diocese of Santander was created in 1754, and Pope Benedict XIV converted the collegiate church into the cathedral of the new diocese. The cathedral was seriously damaged in 1893 by the dynamite explosion aboard the steamship Cabo Machichaco in Santander harbour. It escaped substantial damage during the Spanish Civil War but suffered severe harm in the Santander Fire of 1941.
Reconstruction and later role
Extensive reconstruction and enlargement took place from 1942 to 1953 under José Manuel Bringas and Juan José Resines del Castillo. The work respected substantial parts of the original monument, although it removed important eighteenth-century Baroque additions to the apse designed by José de Cereceda. The cathedral was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1931 and is protected as a monument of cultural interest. It also forms part of a World Heritage site. Since 2015, the complex has housed the Interpretation Centre of the History of Santander.
Remains
The complex consists of two superimposed churches with essentially identical plans, together with a cloister and adjoining rooms. Its predominant character is sober Gothic, although later extensions and alterations introduced additional features. The lower church forms the structural base for the upper church, while the cloister extends the medieval complex beyond the two principal worship spaces.
Lower church and crypt
Church of Christ
Commonly called the Church of Christ or the crypt, the lower church measures 31 metres in length and 18 metres in width. A crypt is a church space below the principal level. This one has three naves divided into four bays, with each bay forming a section between structural divisions. Its substantial arches and vaults support the upper church, and its decoration is chiefly composed of vegetal motifs.
Martyrs’ relics
The crypt contains reliquary busts holding the skulls attributed to Saint Emeterius and Saint Celedonius, Santander’s patron saints. A reliquary is a container for sacred relics, while these busts take the form of human figures. Their presence continues the association between the lower church and the martyrs’ relics preserved beneath the earlier church.
Upper church
Gothic structure
The upper church follows the sober Gothic language of the crypt. Its sanctuary end has three polygonal chapels, and simple rib vaults span the interior. Rib vaults are supported by projecting ribs, which rest here on cruciform piers and columns. The wider and higher central nave receives light through its clerestory, the upper windowed zone of a church’s central nave. Much of the decoration on the arches, columns, horizontal bands above the columns, and doorways survives.
Portal and windows
The principal portal is distinguished by sculpted arms that combine the castles of Castile with the lions of León. The windows contain modern stained glass. A marble element on the north side bears an Arabic inscription and was supposedly taken during the conquest of Seville. On the south side, a tribune carries a fresco by the painter José Cataluña Miralles.
Side chapels
Numerous chapels line the north and south walls of the side naves. On the south side, Fernando Herrera Calderón made the first chapel in 1624, Juan Alvarado made the second in the early seventeenth century, and Sebastián de la Puebla made the third in 1622. On the north side, the first chapel dates from 1671 and has Baroque features. The second is the Penitence Chapel and contains a baptismal font. The third contains the tomb of Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, a Spanish scholar and literary historian, made by the sculptor Victorio Macho.
Later enlargement
The mid-twentieth-century enlargement added a new presbytery, an ambulatory, and a crossing dome. The presbytery is the sanctuary area, while the ambulatory is a passage around it. Altars dedicated to Fernando III of Castile and Saint Matthias stand within the ambulatory.
Altered furnishings and cloister
Removed features
The stone choir that survived the 1941 fire was removed during the reconstruction, along with the Martyrs’ Door and its adjoining monumental staircase. Francisco del Pontón Setien and Juan de la Sierra Bocerraiz made the choir. Gregorio de la Roza created the door and staircase as seventeenth-century works. The door and staircase were disassembled, and their regularly cut ashlar stones were numbered for later reconstruction, but their location is now unknown.
Gothic cloister
The cloister has a trapezoidal plan, pointed arcades, and no decoration. Built during the first half of the fourteenth century in the same architectural style as the churches, it has western doors that formerly led to the Hospital of the Holy Spirit and to a church for pilgrims travelling along the Way of Saint James.
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