The Basilica or Santo Metropolitan Temple of Our Lady of the Pilar, usually called "Basilica del Pilar" or "the Pilar", is one of the two metropolitan cathedrals of the Archdiocese of Zaragoza, along with the Seo del Salvador, in the city of Zaragoza (Aragon, Spain).
According to tradition, it is the first Marian temple of Christianity, since it preserves and venerates the pillar—actually, a jasper column—which, according to tradition, was placed by the Virgin Mary who, still living in Jerusalem, would have appeared in mortal flesh to the apostle James on January 2, 40. There is no documentary evidence of what is recorded in the tradition, the details of which date back to 1297—in a bull by Pope Boniface. VIII— and 1299 —a declaration by the Juries of Zaragoza—, where for the first time the dedication to “Santa María del Pilar” is attested, after Bishop Hugo de Mataplana undertook a rehabilitation of the building that threatened ruin in 1293, thanks to the donations provided by the aforementioned papal bull.[1].
The documented history of the temple dates back to the 19th century, when according to the History of the transfer of Saint Vincent of Aimoino, the existence (extramurals) of a Mozarabic church in Saraqusta dedicated to Saint Mary is attested, in the same place where the baroque basilica is currently located. One of the city's Christian communities was organized around this temple.[2][3].
Architecturally, the basilica is divided into three naves, of equal height, covered with barrel vaults, in which domes and plate vaults are interspersed, resting on robust pillars. The exterior is made of brick, following the Aragonese brick construction tradition, and the interior is plastered with stucco. The central nave is divided by the presence of the main altar under the central dome, with the great main altarpiece of the Assumption, belonging to the previous church, made by the sculptor Damián Forment in the 19th century. Under the other two elliptical domes of the central nave, the Holy Chapel of the Virgen del Pilar was arranged, and the choir and organ, which also came from the predecessor Gothic church. Currently they are moved to the section at the foot of the temple, to provide more space for the faithful who occupy the nave from the main altar.
El Pilar has held the rank of cathedral or seo since the Bull of Union of 1676, since then sharing the seat of the archbishop of Zaragoza with the neighboring Seo del Salvador. In 1948, Pope Pius XII granted it the title of Minor Basilica.
Basilica of Our Lady of Pilar
Introduction
The Basilica or Santo Metropolitan Temple of Our Lady of the Pilar, usually called "Basilica del Pilar" or "the Pilar", is one of the two metropolitan cathedrals of the Archdiocese of Zaragoza, along with the Seo del Salvador, in the city of Zaragoza (Aragon, Spain).
According to tradition, it is the first Marian temple of Christianity, since it preserves and venerates the pillar—actually, a jasper column—which, according to tradition, was placed by the Virgin Mary who, still living in Jerusalem, would have appeared in mortal flesh to the apostle James on January 2, 40. There is no documentary evidence of what is recorded in the tradition, the details of which date back to 1297—in a bull by Pope Boniface. VIII— and 1299 —a declaration by the Juries of Zaragoza—, where for the first time the dedication to “Santa María del Pilar” is attested, after Bishop Hugo de Mataplana undertook a rehabilitation of the building that threatened ruin in 1293, thanks to the donations provided by the aforementioned papal bull.[1].
The documented history of the temple dates back to the 19th century, when according to the History of the transfer of Saint Vincent of Aimoino, the existence (extramurals) of a Mozarabic church in Saraqusta dedicated to Saint Mary is attested, in the same place where the baroque basilica is currently located. One of the city's Christian communities was organized around this temple.[2][3].
Architecturally, the basilica is divided into three naves, of equal height, covered with barrel vaults, in which domes and plate vaults are interspersed, resting on robust pillars. The exterior is made of brick, following the Aragonese brick construction tradition, and the interior is plastered with stucco. The central nave is divided by the presence of the main altar under the central dome, with the great main altarpiece of the Assumption, belonging to the previous church, made by the sculptor Damián Forment in the 19th century. Under the other two elliptical domes of the central nave, the Holy Chapel of the Virgen del Pilar was arranged, and the choir and organ, which also came from the predecessor Gothic church. Currently they are moved to the section at the foot of the temple, to provide more space for the faithful who occupy the nave from the main altar.
The Basilica of Pilar, together with the sanctuaries of Torreciudad, Montserrat, Meritxell and Lourdes make up the Marian Route, an itinerary guided by spirituality and Marian devotion, possessing great heritage, gastronomic and natural wealth. It has also been one of the 12 Treasures of Spain since 2007.[4].
History
Contenido
Según la leyenda cristiana María se habría aparecido en Zaragoza «en carne mortal» sobre una columna —llamada popularmente «el Pilar»— el 2 de enero del año 40. A partir de esta creencia, la tradición religiosa habla de la presencia de una capilla mandada construir por la Virgen para alojar la columna que dejó en testimonio de su venida, y que fue levantada por Santiago el Mayor y los siete primeros convertidos de la ciudad del Ebro.
No hay constatación arqueológica ni documental de esta primera capilla, pero sí las hay de la existencia de una iglesia en Saraqusta, «madre de las iglesias de la ciudad», dedicada a Santa María Virgen en el siglo en el lugar donde actualmente se erige la Basílica, en torno al que se articulaba una de las comunidades de mozárabes de la ciudad, según transmite el monje franco Aimoino, de la abadía de Saint-Germain-des-Prés.[2][3].
Tras la conquista de Zaragoza por el rey Alfonso I de Aragón en 1118, el templo se encontraba en estado ruinoso, y el obispo Pedro de Librana hubo de acondicionar la iglesia para el culto cristiano.[5].
Tiempo después, comenzó en ese mismo lugar la construcción una iglesia románica, cuyas obras no finalizaron hasta el siglo . De esta época data la antigua capilla del Pilar, situada en el interior de una sala en un claustro anejo al templo principal. La capilla del Pilar está documentada por Diego de Espés en 1240 y era un recinto de culto independiente. Una bula del papa Bonifacio VIII de 1297 confirma que ya se veneraba el pilar —o columna— vinculado a la advocación de Santa María, uniéndose ambos cultos en el de Santa María del Pilar.
En 1293 la iglesia ya se encontraba muy deteriorada y poco más tarde se emprende la construcción de un nuevo edificio gótico-mudéjar, que se extendió hasta 1515, e incluía la realización del coro con su sillería labrada y el retablo del altar mayor, encargado a Damián Forment.
Del estado de ese templo nos da una idea un croquis de la planta que se halla en el Archivo del Pilar, una vista de Antonio van den Wyngaerde de 1563 y la Vista de Zaragoza de Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo de 1647, así como una descripción notarial del acta del edificio levantada el 2 de octubre de 1668. La capilla antigua permaneció en pie hasta la reforma del templo del siglo .
The baroque temple
In 1670 Juan José of Austria, then Viceroy of Aragon, promoted the construction of a new baroque style temple, which is the one that essentially exists today. It was designed based on several projects, led by the Zaragoza master builders Felipe Busiñac and Felipe Sánchez, and continued by the prestigious royal architect Francisco de Herrera el Mozo. The works began in 1681.
After the expansion of the temple completed in 1730, the Basilica reached its current dimensions: 130 m long by 67 m wide.[6] Finally, in 1765, the reform was completed with the contributions of Ventura Rodríguez, who in 1750 had designed a new chapel of the Virgin at the initiative of Fernando VI, which began to be executed in 1754 once the old one was demolished.
Ventura Rodríguez also tried to reorganize the temple. Among his plans was to move the Renaissance altarpiece and the choir, creating a vast central nave, which would have as its altar the large marble high relief that decorates the transaltar wall of the Santa Capilla de Carlos Salas Viraseca. In the end it was not done, but it did modify the decorative concept of the interior of the temple, notably simplifying the decoration of the capitals and the flames of the columns, giving it a more sober appearance and in line with the incipient neoclassical taste of the time.
The Marquis of Peralada also contributed to its current Byzantine appearance, who gave the idea of giving the sanctuary its characteristic silhouette of domes and towers, most of which were erected between 1796 and 1872, the year in which the temple was considered finished. However, the angular towers that enhance the exterior volume date for most of the century, and were not completed until 1961.
• - Historical images.
• - Mudejar Church of Pilar in 1647, according to details of the View of Zaragoza by Martínez del Mazo.
• - Basilica del Pilar in 1806. Engraving by Robert Daudet from a drawing by Louis François Léjeune.
• - El Pilar in 1883 (Adriano Lombardo).
• - El Pilar in 1912 (the towers had not yet reached the final height) (Mundo Graphico, no. 14 of January 31, 1912).
Abroad
The exterior volume of the Basilica del Pilar reaches majestic proportions. Over the centuries, and especially since the Baroque construction, the temple has been enlarging its silhouette with the elevation of domes and towers in its corners.
It currently has eleven domes roofed with glazed tiles in green, yellow, blue and white colors. A central one, at the confluence between the nave and the central section of the church - which consists of three naves and seven sections -; two smaller ones located on both sides, in the second and sixth sections, above the Holy Chapel and the Main Choir; and four smaller ones surrounding these two medium domes in the corners, on the first, third, fifth and seventh sections of both side naves. Furthermore, between the buttresses there are chapels topped with lanterns. The towers, mostly raised in the century thanks to the project carried out by the architect Miguel Ángel Navarro Pérez "Miguel Ángel Navarro (architect)"), reach ninety-eight meters in height.[7].
In 1944 a popular alms was called to reform the south façade, facing the square. The project by Teodoro Ríos was carried out between 1945 and 1950 and consisted of framing the two main entrances at the ends of the temple with triangular pediment porticos on Corinthian columns. Likewise, attached pilasters were added that broke the monotony of the wall to create a series of sections, while at the same time another portico was placed in the center, coinciding with the main dome, formed by a niche with a sculpture of the Coming of the Virgin by Pablo Serrano (1969) in coincidence with the pinion of the nave of the transept or central section, flanked by double columns between which niches with flamers.
On the entire façade, he arranged a molded cornice of great prominence and finishing off this attic, a round balustrade that incorporates statues of saints of the region due to Félix Burriel —San Vicente de Paúl— and Antonio Torres Clavero") —San Vicente, Santiago, Santa Isabel de Portugal, San Braulio, San Valero, Santa Engracia and San José de Calasanz.[8].
In the wall closest to the door at the eastern end, the one closest to the Holy Chapel, the Romanesque tympanum was inserted, the only remains of the early medieval church.
Today, on the north and east exterior façade of the Basilica del Pilar you can see the marks produced by the bombs launched by the French during the two sieges that took place on the city of Zaragoza in the years 1808 and 1809.
Inside
La disposición interior de la basílica del Pilar se articula en tres naves —la central más ancha— y siete tramos, que descansan sobre gruesos pilares decorados con pilastras adosadas clasicistas. Sobre ellos hay unos sobrios entablamentos que soportan cúpulas sobre pechinas y bóvedas rebajadas. En los muros se abren capillas laterales cubiertas con cúpulas con linterna o bóvedas. Los intradoses de los arcos de medio punto, cuellos de bóvedas y cúpulas fueron decorados en 1871 por el escultor Manuel Miguel Gálvez") con guirnaldas y putti.[9].
Siguiendo un recorrido según las agujas del reloj, desde la llamada puerta baja (la más cercana a la Virgen, en el extremo este de la fachada sur), se encuentra la capilla de Santa Ana y la de San José. A continuación, en el centro de la nave lateral sur, se abre la sacristía mayor. Seguidamente la capilla de San Antonio y la de San Braulio hasta llegar a la entrada de la puerta alta. En el tramo oeste, en el trascoro, se encuentran cuatro pequeñas capillitas, a ambos lados del coro, entre las que destacan las del Ecce Homo (con un cuadro atribuido a Roland de Mois o a Pablo Scheppers), y la de la Buena Esperanza. En el lado de los pies de la catedral se abren otras dos capillas: del Rosario y de San Agustín (llamada también parroquia del Pilar, donde se celebran oficios religiosos cotidianos) y entre ellas se sitúa la sala capitular.
En el lado norte y desde la puerta alta del norte, que da a la ribera del Ebro, hay otras tres capillas: San Pedro Arbués, San Lorenzo y San Joaquín y la sacristía de la Virgen, dejando en el centro el espacio que ocupa el Museo Pilarista. Por último, en el lado este, frente a la Santa Capilla, está el Coreto de la Virgen y a ambos lados dos capillas: al norte la de Santiago y al sur la de San Juan, ya en la puerta baja de entrada del lado de la plaza mencionada al comienzo de este recorrido, que es la que mayor afluencia de público recibe.
El Museo Pilarista guarda un sinfín de objetos de orfebrería litúrgica, pero destaca sobre todo el llamado joyero de la Virgen, en el que se presentan coronas, diademas, resplandores, etc. de piedras preciosas, y la colección de más de 350 mantos de la Virgen.
En la basílica del Pilar están enterrados la mayoría de los arzobispos zaragozanos de la Edad Moderna, así como también reposan los cuerpos de san Braulio y del duque de Zaragoza, el general Palafox, entre otros.
Como curiosidad hay que hablar de las bombas que se lanzaron sobre la basílica en la Guerra Civil. En la madrugada del tres de agosto de 1936 un bombardero Fokker F-VII del ejército republicano español, volando a baja altura, lanzó cuatro bombas sobre la ciudad; una de ellas cayó en las calles de Zaragoza, fuera del templo; otra cayó en la misma plaza del Pilar, frente a la calle Alfonso,-«marcando una cruz en el suelo y levantando cinco adoquines»- relataba la prensa de los rebeldes al día siguiente; otra atravesó el techo del templo y la última cayó en el mismo marco dorado del mural de Goya en el Coreto. Ninguna de las bombas estalló, pero el fuerte impacto las destrozó, derramando el explosivo por el fondo de la bóveda. Hoy se exhiben y conservan dos de estos proyectiles en uno de los pilares cercanos a la Santa Capilla.
Este hecho se atribuyó, en el bando sublevado y entre la población zaragozana, a un milagro de la Virgen. Sin embargo, el suceso no se puede considerar como excepcional, debido a que las bombas utilizadas, como gran parte del armamento de que disponían ambos bandos al inicio de la guerra, era anticuado y estaba fuera de uso;[10] por otro lado, menudeaban los actos de sabotaje entre los servidores de la Marina y la Aviación republicanas (las bombas, según un informe del Director del Parque de Artillería de Zaragoza,[11] estaban mal montadas) y, por si era poco, las bombas estaban diseñadas para explotar sólo si se lanzaban por encima de los 500 metros, y no desde 150 como lo hizo el inexperto (o quizás, según algunos, poco inclinado al bombardeo del templo) aviador.[12].
También cabe destacar la presencia de las banderas de España e Hispanoamérica, por ser la Virgen del Pilar la patrona de la Hispanidad.
fresco paintings
All the domes that surround and crown the Holy Chapel are painted. In 1753, Antonio González Velázquez painted the elliptical dome over the chapel of the Virgin and the remaining brothers Ramón and Francisco Bayeu and Francisco de Goya, who decorated the one that bears the name Regina Martirum") ('Queen of the Martyrs') and the vault of the Coreto. The main dome, which covers the organ and Main Choir, and the elliptical dome of the central nave in front of the Choir. The sketches of many of these works are kept in the cathedral museum.
• - Location plan of the paintings on the domes around the Holy Chapel.
In 1752, while construction of the Holy Chapel was beginning, Ventura Rodríguez proposed that the elliptical dome of this space be decorated by the young Antonio González Velázquez, who was in Rome studying with Corrado Giaquinto. After designing the preparatory sketches with the collaboration of his teacher, the Italian painter, he began the execution of the fresco with the theme The construction of the Holy Chapel and the Coming of the Virgin of the Pilar in the half orange, to which he added the decoration of the pendentives with the representation of Four strong women from the Bible. The pictorial ornamentation was inaugurated in 1753. In it González Velázquez showed his academic perfection in drawing and his fluid use of Rococo chromaticism.
It was not until 1772 that the fresco decoration was continued, with the commission that was then made to a young Francisco de Goya for the vault of the choir of the Virgin, where he represented the Adoration of the Name of God. Since those years, the cathedral chapter had commissioned Francisco Bayeu, then Court painter, to do the rest of the domes and vaults that surrounded the Holy Chapel. He began painting the vault located in the front section of the Virgin's chapel, with the theme Regina Sanctorum Omnium ('Queen of All Saints'), and continued with the vault located behind, the one dedicated to the queen of the angels, Regina Angelorum. From 1780 Francisco Bayeu counted on his brother Ramón and his brother-in-law Francisco to finish the crown of the ornamentation of the Virgin. Goya was in charge of the dome located in front of the chapel of San Joaquín with the litany Regina Martirum"). However, the council did not like his loose technique and his unacademic drawing, so, after painting the pendentives with greater classicist adequacy after the first drafts for them had been rejected, he left the project very hurt with the council and at enmity with his brother-in-law Francisco. Ramón Bayeu painted three others domes with the subjects Regina Virginum, Regina Patriarcharum and Regina Confessorum.
After the catastrophe of the War of Independence, we had to wait until the second half of the century to continue with the decorative program. In 1872 the paintings of the segments of the main dome were completed, in which, according to the project of Bernardino Montañés, the most important Aragonese painters of his time collaborated. Montañés painted a ; Marcellin of Unceta the and the of the region; Francisco Lana"), ; Mariano Pescador, and the of Zaragoza; León Abadías, and . These last two also painted the pendentives with the four evangelists.
The Holy Chapel of the Pilar
The Chapel of Our Lady of Pilar is an independent construction within the group of naves of the Cathedral. It constitutes a space, both spacious and intimate, integrated into the temple but with a particular scale. It is made in the classicist baroque style, with cut domes, glory breaks, curved entablatures, and numerous marble sculptures and medallions.
The chapel, built from a design by Ventura Rodríguez between 1750 and 1765 as a jewel to enhance the image of the Virgin, was one of the masterpieces of Spanish Baroque architecture. In it, with materials of great nobility, there is a complete integration of sculpture and architecture. José Ramírez de Arellano - also the architect of the sculptural groups inside - directed the works, since Ventura Rodríguez was only in El Pilar on two occasions and delegated responsibility for the execution from 1754 on to Ramírez de Arellano.
The space is conceived as a baldachin inside the temple and is located under the second section of the central nave "Nave (architecture)"). The plan is curvilinear like a Greek cross with rounded finishes on the plan, covered by an elliptical central dome, on an entablature that runs sinuous in a line of four lobes. The cover is perforated in transparent materials that allow light to pass through and the entire complex is decorated with free-standing sculptures on the cornices and sculptural groups in relief according to a program that includes the need to highlight the Virgin's clique, located off-axis to the viewer's right. The games of curves and volumes are indebted to the work of Bernini and Borromini, to Byzantine architecture, Rococo and Neoclassicism.
The carving of the Virgin in gilded wood measures thirty-six centimeters high and rests on a jasper column, protected by a bronze and silver lining and covered by a mantle up to the feet of the image, except for the second, twelfth and twentieth of each month when the column appears visible on its entire surface. On the rear façade of the chapel the humiliation opens, where the faithful can venerate the Holy Column through an oculus open to jasper.
It is a sculpture in the late Gothic Franco-Burgundian style from around 1435 attributed to Juan de la Huerta, an image maker from Daroca. As for its iconography, we see Mary crowned and wearing a tunic and mantle, which she picks up with her right hand, contemplating the Child Jesus who holds his mother's mantle with his right hand and a bird with his left. The face of the Virgin has tenderness and the Child may have been the subject of a careless restoration.
It was probably an image donated by Dalmacio de Mur with the patronage of Blanca de Navarra, wife of Juan II of Aragón, following the cure of an illness that afflicted the queen at that time.
Main altar altarpiece
The altarpiece of the main altar was made of polychrome alabaster, with a wooden dust cover "Dust cover (architecture)"), by Damián Forment between 1515 and 1518 and is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin. The style of architecture of the altarpiece is late Gothic, although the figurative scenes show fully Renaissance characteristics.
In 1509 the metropolitan council hired Damián Forment to create the bench or predella of the altarpiece of the main altar that would occupy the head of the collegiate church of Santa María, with the requirement that it be "as good and better than the Asseu" (than that of La Seo). In 1511, with the bench almost finished, he would also contract the rest of the altarpiece, with three monumental scenes in its streets: the Assumption in the center, the Birth of the Virgin") to its right and the Presentation of Mary in the temple") to its left. Finally, in 1515, Forment delegated the work of the rest of the architectural decoration to masters hired for his workshop. The altarpiece was completed in 1518.
In the predella, seven scenes are arranged from left to right: Meeting of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne at the Golden Door"), Annunciation, Visitation, Adoration of the Shepherds, Adoration of the Magi, Pieta&action=edit&redlink=1 "Pieta (religion) (not yet written)") and Resurrection, separated by columns with canopies Gothic style that houses statues of saints and apostles. It is the area of the altarpiece where Forment is most advanced, since in the frames of the scenes and its architecture and ornaments, decoration typical of the Renaissance appears, such as putti, cartouches "Cartel (card)") or balusters. It is completed by statues of Santiago el Mayor and Braulio de Zaragoza located in niches on the flanks. heraldic figures supported by angels and medallions. The bank scenes still retain traces of the original polychrome, although in the main streets it has practically disappeared.
Choir
Bordering the main altar, in the westernmost section of the Basilica, there is a Renaissance choir of notable quality carved in Flanders oak wood that makes up a group with stalls topped by a high cornice and mercy "Mercy (support)"), organ and grille.
It was carved by Esteban de Obray, Juan de Moreto and Nicolás Lobato between 1542 and 1548. It is a stall with three rows of seats superimposed in the form of a tier and arranged in an ultra-semicircular plan. On the underside of the seats there is inlay work with yellow boxwood inlays. At first there were 138 seats, but today there are 124 left; some were reused by placing them on the sides of the presbytery of the main altar.
The iconographic program of half-reliefs on the backrests is one of the important works in this area of the Spanish Renaissance. The presidential places contain scenes whose subject is the coming of the Virgin and the construction of the Holy Chapel by Santiago and the converts. The rest is intended to represent passages from the life of Mary and the passion of Christ.
The main organ of the cathedral, whose case was described by Juan Bautista Labaña in 1610 as having "extreme sculpture", was preserved in its original appearance until 1940. It was made by Juan de Moreto and Esteban Ropic" in 1529 in Plateresque style. In the middle of the century it was expanded, to be able to perform the entire classical and romantic repertoire, increasing its register and widening its case, the new parts of which were decorated imitating the style of the original work.
The Mannerist gate was the work of the "Buidador" Juan Tomás Celma, carried out between 1573 and 1578. The marble base is due to Guillermo Salbán.
Coreto, sacristies and other chapels
Around the entire perimeter of the Basilica del Pilar, in the space between the buttresses, there are several private chapels as well as other spaces for use by the chapter. Starting from the Coreto de la Virgen, bordering the Santa Capilla, a route follows in a clockwise direction.
In the central space of the east side, that of the head of the temple, is the Coreto of the Virgin, facing the Holy Chapel. It was built by Julián de Yarza y Lafuente") in 1764 based on the plan of Ventura Rodríguez. It contains a stall with sixty-eight seats in two heights, of which forty-one are in the upper row. It is the work of José Ramírez de Arellano from 1768. The set is completed with an organ from 1720 by Bartolomé Sánchez, whose case was decorated in 1770 with putti from the workshop by Carlos Salas Viraseca, who was also in charge of the stucco decorations on the walls. In 1772, the lowered elliptical vault received the aforementioned Goya fresco, The Adoration of the Name of God. The core is closed by a jasper and bronze fence from 1792 topped with fames and painted wooden angels imitating marble by José Sanz and a medallion with the anagram of the Virgin.
In the southeastern corner of the temple, the first chapel on the right as you enter through the low door that faces the Plaza de las Catedrales, was ordered to be built by Archbishop Tomás Crespo de Agüero, which lies in a niche located in the right wall of it. It is covered with a dome with a lantern on pendentives, all decorated in 1743 in the late Baroque Bolognese style with geometric frescoes, allegorical figures of the theological virtues and the archbishop's coat of arms. The altarpiece of Saint John the Baptist stands out, carved in wood in a way that anticipates the Rococo. The image of the saint dates from around 1700 and is attributed to Gregorio de Mesa"). On the side walls there are two large canvases. On the right Preaching of the Baptist in the Jordan, by Pablo Félix Rabiella y Sánchez, and on the left a Visitation, possibly by Jerónimo Lorieri. Important popular devotion receives a Christ under a canopy arranged in the right corner, the Santo Cristo del Pilar, in the Andalusian baroque style of the 19th century .
It contains an altarpiece from the second half of the century in wood imitating jaspers. The main group is Saint Anne with the Virgin by Antonio Palao y Marco (1852) and on its sides there are statues of San Juan de Dios (right) and San Francisco de Paula (left), carvings from the late 18th century baroque. In the predella three tables from the second half of the century were added, an Annunciation, a possible Adoration of the Magi and the Birth of Christ. On the right side of the chapel there is a funerary monument with sculptures by Ponciano Ponzano y Gascón to General Manuel de Ena, who died in 1851 in the Cuban War, which was paid for by his comrades in arms. On the left are two tables of and by Roland de Mois.
Pilar Museum
In what was until 1977 the prayer room of the Basilica, works of artistic and emotional value related to the cult of the Virgin of Pilar are displayed. The cloaks that cover the column up to the feet of the Virgin stand out, of which there is a large collection with fabrics of great antiquity and value. In the same way, the crowns that adorn the image of Our Lady of Pilar are kept, one of them, that of the canonical coronation of 1905, made of gold and precious stones. Also displayed in this space are the jewels of the Virgin, luxury goldsmithing whose oldest examples, some earrings, date back to the 19th century. You can also see enamels from Limoges, medals of the Virgin and even a silver bull given by the legendary bullfighter Francisco Cúchares to the Virgin in 1839. Liturgical objects (chalices, pastoral rings) complete the collection.
The walls display most of the sketches that were submitted by the authors of the fresco paintings of domes, vaults and walls. But without a doubt the central pieces of the Pilarist treasure are a Book of hours from the 19th century, a small Arabic ivory box from the same century, an autograph letter from Saint Teresa of Jesus and, fundamentally, the Oliphant of Gastón IV of Béarn. It is a carved ivory hunting horn from the beginning of the century that was donated to the temple in 1135 by the widow of the champion of the conquest of Zaragoza, Doña Talesa de Aragón, as a contribution to the new Christian church shortly after Saraqusta was reconquered. Finally, in the center of the room, is located the wooden model of the Holy Chapel that Ventura Rodríguez made in 1754 to serve as a model for the temple.
Music in the Pilar
El primer órgano, hasta donde se sabe, fue construido en 1463 por Enrique de Colonia"). En 1537 construye uno nuevo Martín de Córdoba con la intención de poder competir con el de la Seo.
Guillermo de Lupe") y su hijo Gaudioso reestructuran el órgano mayor entre 1595 y 1602, siguiendo a la reforma que Guillermo había hecho del de la catedral del Salvador en 1577.
En 1657 se sabe que hay varios órganos en la iglesia, quizá cinco de diversos tamaños y posibilidades. La actividad musical es, por tanto, rica y variada durante el Siglo de Oro, pero comenzará a decaer a finales del siglo .
Desde la Edad Media un músico (ministril) acompañaba con el bajón las voces de la capella de músicos cantores. La existencia de polifonía instrumental se documenta desde mediado el siglo en que aparece la polifonía instrumental, con músicos que interpretan al «tenor» y «contrabajón». En el último cuarto de este siglo, formando ya una orquesta de ministriles, acuerdan trabajar para el Concejo Metropolitano de Zaragoza, la Diputación del Reino de Aragón y la iglesia de Santa María la Mayor, predecesora de la Basílica catedral. El archivo musical del Pilar está reunido con el de La Seo, y reúne una cantidad ingente de producción musical desde la Edad Moderna hasta nuestros días.
Entre los más importantes directores de la actividad musical de la Basílica del Pilar destacan los siguientes maestros de capilla y organistas:.
Chapel Masters
• - Century . Juan García de Basurto, Melchor Robledo, Antón Vergara"), Cristóbal Cortés, Juan Pujol.
• - Century . Urbán de Vargas, Juan Marqués, José Ruiz Samaniego, José Alonso Torices, Juan Pérez Roldán, Diego de Cáseda y Zaldívar, Jerónimo Latorre, Miguel Ambiela.
• - Century . Joaquín Martínez de la Roca, Luis Serra, Bernardo Miralles, Cayetano Echevarría, Joaquín Lázaro, Manuel Álvarez "Manuel Álvarez (musician)"), José Gil de Palomar, Vicente Fernández&action=edit&redlink=1 "Vicente Fernández (chapelmaster) (not yet written)").
• - Century . Hilario Prádanos, Antonio Félix Lozano González, Francisco Agüeras.
• - Century . Gregorio Arciniega, Juan Azagra Vicente, José Vicente González Valle.
Organists
• - Century . Mosén Montaña"), Pedro Ricardo"), Martín Monje, Juan Marco").
• - Century . Pedro Blasco"), Juan Luis Lope"), José Muniesa"), Diego Xaraba y Bruna, Jerónimo Latorre, Joaquín Martínez de la Roca.
• - Century . Tomás Soriano"), Ramón Cuéllar.
• - Century . Ramón Ferreñac, Valentín Melón").
• - Century . Pedro León Andía Labarta"),[14] Francisco Agüeras, Gregorio Garcés Til.
• - Annex: Assets of cultural interest of the province of Zaragoza.
• - Annex: Cataloged goods of the province of Zaragoza.
• - Annex: Basilicas and cathedrals of Spain.
• - 12 Treasures of Spain.
• - Tape measuring the Virgen del Pilar.
• - ANSÓN NAVARRO, Arturo") and Belén Boloqui Larraya, «Zaragoza Barroca», in Guillermo Fatás Cabeza (coord.), Historical-artistic guide to Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Institución «Fernando el Católico»; City Council of Zaragoza, 2008, 4th revised and expanded ed., pp. 249-327. Cf. especially the section “Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar”, pages 287-322.— ISBN 978-84-7820-948-4.
• - «El Pilar» Archived August 23, 2018 at the Wayback Machine., Great Aragonese Encyclopedia (online). [Consultation: 7-22-2008].
• - NOUGUÉS SECALL, Mariano, Critical and apologetic history of the Virgin Our Lady of the Pilar of Zaragoza and her temple and tabernacle from the century to the present day, Madrid, Alejandro Gómez Fuentenebro, 1862.
• - ORTIZ ALBERO, Miguel Ángel"), Julián Pelegrín Campo and María Pilar Rivero Gracia, The unknown Pilar, Zaragoza, Heraldo de Aragón, 2006, page 13.—D. L. Z-2597-06. OCLC 433533535.
• - RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wifredo, El Pilar de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Everest, 2000. ISBN 84-241-0044-1.
[2] ↑ a b Textualmente: «[...] in ecclesia beatae Mariae semper Virginis, quae est mater ecclesiarum ejusdem urbis [...]». Cfr. Aimoino, Historia translationis S. Vicentii levitae et mart. ex Hispania ad Castrense in Gallia monasterium: auctore Aimonio monacho ord. S. Benedicti, Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1806, t. 4. Lectio V, pág. 177. Página 13 del documento digital. Apud «Apéndice de documentos», Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva (ed.), Viaje Literario a las iglesias de España, Madrid, Imprenta de Fortanet-Real Academia de la Historia, 1806, tomo IV, págs. 167-209. Biblioteca Virtual del Pensamiento Político Hispánico Saavedra Fajardo. Ficha catalográfica Archivado el 23 de septiembre de 2010 en Wayback Machine..[Consulta 16.9.2010].: https://web.archive.org/web/20100619093025/http://saavedrafajardo.um.es/WEB/archivos/LIBROS/Libro0260.pdf
[3] ↑ a b Miguel Ángel Ortiz Albero, Julián Pelegrín Campo y María Pilar Rivero Gracia, El Pilar desconocido, Zaragoza, Heraldo de Aragón, 2006, pág. 13.—D. L. Z-2597-06 OCLC 433533535.: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/433533535
[5] ↑ Según el artículo «El Pilar» Archivado el 23 de agosto de 2018 en Wayback Machine., Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa (en línea). [Consulta:22-7-2008]:
[6] ↑ Estaba ya previsto que fuera rematado por once cúpulas, diez linternas y cuatro torres, aunque al comienzo del siglo XIX solo se habían construido las cinco cúpulas que coronan y rodean la Santa capilla, y la torre del ángulo suroccidental. Solo en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX fueron construidas las cúpulas y cupulillas restantes, y en el siglo XX las altas torres angulares, que fueron finalizadas en 1961. El interior de las cúpulas y bóvedas fue ideado para ser pintado al fresco, si bien no todas las cúpulas lo fueron.
[7] ↑ Espada Torres, D.M. «Leonor Sala Ruiz de Andrés, la última gran mecenas de la basílica del Pilar». LAS MUJERES Y EL UNIVERSO DE LAS ARTES (Institución Fernando el Católico). ISBN 978-84-9911-594-8.
[8] ↑ Fernández, Ana Ara (2004). «La decoración escultórica del Pilar en el siglo XX: la obra de Antonio Torres». Artigrama (19): 453-471. ISSN 0213-1498. Consultado el 18 de agosto de 2015.: http://www.unizar.es/artigrama/pdf/19/3varia/9.pdf
El Pilar has held the rank of cathedral or seo since the Bull of Union of 1676, since then sharing the seat of the archbishop of Zaragoza with the neighboring Seo del Salvador. In 1948, Pope Pius XII granted it the title of Minor Basilica.
The Basilica of Pilar, together with the sanctuaries of Torreciudad, Montserrat, Meritxell and Lourdes make up the Marian Route, an itinerary guided by spirituality and Marian devotion, possessing great heritage, gastronomic and natural wealth. It has also been one of the 12 Treasures of Spain since 2007.[4].
History
Contenido
Según la leyenda cristiana María se habría aparecido en Zaragoza «en carne mortal» sobre una columna —llamada popularmente «el Pilar»— el 2 de enero del año 40. A partir de esta creencia, la tradición religiosa habla de la presencia de una capilla mandada construir por la Virgen para alojar la columna que dejó en testimonio de su venida, y que fue levantada por Santiago el Mayor y los siete primeros convertidos de la ciudad del Ebro.
No hay constatación arqueológica ni documental de esta primera capilla, pero sí las hay de la existencia de una iglesia en Saraqusta, «madre de las iglesias de la ciudad», dedicada a Santa María Virgen en el siglo en el lugar donde actualmente se erige la Basílica, en torno al que se articulaba una de las comunidades de mozárabes de la ciudad, según transmite el monje franco Aimoino, de la abadía de Saint-Germain-des-Prés.[2][3].
Tras la conquista de Zaragoza por el rey Alfonso I de Aragón en 1118, el templo se encontraba en estado ruinoso, y el obispo Pedro de Librana hubo de acondicionar la iglesia para el culto cristiano.[5].
Tiempo después, comenzó en ese mismo lugar la construcción una iglesia románica, cuyas obras no finalizaron hasta el siglo . De esta época data la antigua capilla del Pilar, situada en el interior de una sala en un claustro anejo al templo principal. La capilla del Pilar está documentada por Diego de Espés en 1240 y era un recinto de culto independiente. Una bula del papa Bonifacio VIII de 1297 confirma que ya se veneraba el pilar —o columna— vinculado a la advocación de Santa María, uniéndose ambos cultos en el de Santa María del Pilar.
En 1293 la iglesia ya se encontraba muy deteriorada y poco más tarde se emprende la construcción de un nuevo edificio gótico-mudéjar, que se extendió hasta 1515, e incluía la realización del coro con su sillería labrada y el retablo del altar mayor, encargado a Damián Forment.
Del estado de ese templo nos da una idea un croquis de la planta que se halla en el Archivo del Pilar, una vista de Antonio van den Wyngaerde de 1563 y la Vista de Zaragoza de Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo de 1647, así como una descripción notarial del acta del edificio levantada el 2 de octubre de 1668. La capilla antigua permaneció en pie hasta la reforma del templo del siglo .
The baroque temple
In 1670 Juan José of Austria, then Viceroy of Aragon, promoted the construction of a new baroque style temple, which is the one that essentially exists today. It was designed based on several projects, led by the Zaragoza master builders Felipe Busiñac and Felipe Sánchez, and continued by the prestigious royal architect Francisco de Herrera el Mozo. The works began in 1681.
After the expansion of the temple completed in 1730, the Basilica reached its current dimensions: 130 m long by 67 m wide.[6] Finally, in 1765, the reform was completed with the contributions of Ventura Rodríguez, who in 1750 had designed a new chapel of the Virgin at the initiative of Fernando VI, which began to be executed in 1754 once the old one was demolished.
Ventura Rodríguez also tried to reorganize the temple. Among his plans was to move the Renaissance altarpiece and the choir, creating a vast central nave, which would have as its altar the large marble high relief that decorates the transaltar wall of the Santa Capilla de Carlos Salas Viraseca. In the end it was not done, but it did modify the decorative concept of the interior of the temple, notably simplifying the decoration of the capitals and the flames of the columns, giving it a more sober appearance and in line with the incipient neoclassical taste of the time.
The Marquis of Peralada also contributed to its current Byzantine appearance, who gave the idea of giving the sanctuary its characteristic silhouette of domes and towers, most of which were erected between 1796 and 1872, the year in which the temple was considered finished. However, the angular towers that enhance the exterior volume date for most of the century, and were not completed until 1961.
• - Historical images.
• - Mudejar Church of Pilar in 1647, according to details of the View of Zaragoza by Martínez del Mazo.
• - Basilica del Pilar in 1806. Engraving by Robert Daudet from a drawing by Louis François Léjeune.
• - El Pilar in 1883 (Adriano Lombardo).
• - El Pilar in 1912 (the towers had not yet reached the final height) (Mundo Graphico, no. 14 of January 31, 1912).
Abroad
The exterior volume of the Basilica del Pilar reaches majestic proportions. Over the centuries, and especially since the Baroque construction, the temple has been enlarging its silhouette with the elevation of domes and towers in its corners.
It currently has eleven domes roofed with glazed tiles in green, yellow, blue and white colors. A central one, at the confluence between the nave and the central section of the church - which consists of three naves and seven sections -; two smaller ones located on both sides, in the second and sixth sections, above the Holy Chapel and the Main Choir; and four smaller ones surrounding these two medium domes in the corners, on the first, third, fifth and seventh sections of both side naves. Furthermore, between the buttresses there are chapels topped with lanterns. The towers, mostly raised in the century thanks to the project carried out by the architect Miguel Ángel Navarro Pérez "Miguel Ángel Navarro (architect)"), reach ninety-eight meters in height.[7].
In 1944 a popular alms was called to reform the south façade, facing the square. The project by Teodoro Ríos was carried out between 1945 and 1950 and consisted of framing the two main entrances at the ends of the temple with triangular pediment porticos on Corinthian columns. Likewise, attached pilasters were added that broke the monotony of the wall to create a series of sections, while at the same time another portico was placed in the center, coinciding with the main dome, formed by a niche with a sculpture of the Coming of the Virgin by Pablo Serrano (1969) in coincidence with the pinion of the nave of the transept or central section, flanked by double columns between which niches with flamers.
On the entire façade, he arranged a molded cornice of great prominence and finishing off this attic, a round balustrade that incorporates statues of saints of the region due to Félix Burriel —San Vicente de Paúl— and Antonio Torres Clavero") —San Vicente, Santiago, Santa Isabel de Portugal, San Braulio, San Valero, Santa Engracia and San José de Calasanz.[8].
In the wall closest to the door at the eastern end, the one closest to the Holy Chapel, the Romanesque tympanum was inserted, the only remains of the early medieval church.
Today, on the north and east exterior façade of the Basilica del Pilar you can see the marks produced by the bombs launched by the French during the two sieges that took place on the city of Zaragoza in the years 1808 and 1809.
Inside
La disposición interior de la basílica del Pilar se articula en tres naves —la central más ancha— y siete tramos, que descansan sobre gruesos pilares decorados con pilastras adosadas clasicistas. Sobre ellos hay unos sobrios entablamentos que soportan cúpulas sobre pechinas y bóvedas rebajadas. En los muros se abren capillas laterales cubiertas con cúpulas con linterna o bóvedas. Los intradoses de los arcos de medio punto, cuellos de bóvedas y cúpulas fueron decorados en 1871 por el escultor Manuel Miguel Gálvez") con guirnaldas y putti.[9].
Siguiendo un recorrido según las agujas del reloj, desde la llamada puerta baja (la más cercana a la Virgen, en el extremo este de la fachada sur), se encuentra la capilla de Santa Ana y la de San José. A continuación, en el centro de la nave lateral sur, se abre la sacristía mayor. Seguidamente la capilla de San Antonio y la de San Braulio hasta llegar a la entrada de la puerta alta. En el tramo oeste, en el trascoro, se encuentran cuatro pequeñas capillitas, a ambos lados del coro, entre las que destacan las del Ecce Homo (con un cuadro atribuido a Roland de Mois o a Pablo Scheppers), y la de la Buena Esperanza. En el lado de los pies de la catedral se abren otras dos capillas: del Rosario y de San Agustín (llamada también parroquia del Pilar, donde se celebran oficios religiosos cotidianos) y entre ellas se sitúa la sala capitular.
En el lado norte y desde la puerta alta del norte, que da a la ribera del Ebro, hay otras tres capillas: San Pedro Arbués, San Lorenzo y San Joaquín y la sacristía de la Virgen, dejando en el centro el espacio que ocupa el Museo Pilarista. Por último, en el lado este, frente a la Santa Capilla, está el Coreto de la Virgen y a ambos lados dos capillas: al norte la de Santiago y al sur la de San Juan, ya en la puerta baja de entrada del lado de la plaza mencionada al comienzo de este recorrido, que es la que mayor afluencia de público recibe.
El Museo Pilarista guarda un sinfín de objetos de orfebrería litúrgica, pero destaca sobre todo el llamado joyero de la Virgen, en el que se presentan coronas, diademas, resplandores, etc. de piedras preciosas, y la colección de más de 350 mantos de la Virgen.
En la basílica del Pilar están enterrados la mayoría de los arzobispos zaragozanos de la Edad Moderna, así como también reposan los cuerpos de san Braulio y del duque de Zaragoza, el general Palafox, entre otros.
Como curiosidad hay que hablar de las bombas que se lanzaron sobre la basílica en la Guerra Civil. En la madrugada del tres de agosto de 1936 un bombardero Fokker F-VII del ejército republicano español, volando a baja altura, lanzó cuatro bombas sobre la ciudad; una de ellas cayó en las calles de Zaragoza, fuera del templo; otra cayó en la misma plaza del Pilar, frente a la calle Alfonso,-«marcando una cruz en el suelo y levantando cinco adoquines»- relataba la prensa de los rebeldes al día siguiente; otra atravesó el techo del templo y la última cayó en el mismo marco dorado del mural de Goya en el Coreto. Ninguna de las bombas estalló, pero el fuerte impacto las destrozó, derramando el explosivo por el fondo de la bóveda. Hoy se exhiben y conservan dos de estos proyectiles en uno de los pilares cercanos a la Santa Capilla.
Este hecho se atribuyó, en el bando sublevado y entre la población zaragozana, a un milagro de la Virgen. Sin embargo, el suceso no se puede considerar como excepcional, debido a que las bombas utilizadas, como gran parte del armamento de que disponían ambos bandos al inicio de la guerra, era anticuado y estaba fuera de uso;[10] por otro lado, menudeaban los actos de sabotaje entre los servidores de la Marina y la Aviación republicanas (las bombas, según un informe del Director del Parque de Artillería de Zaragoza,[11] estaban mal montadas) y, por si era poco, las bombas estaban diseñadas para explotar sólo si se lanzaban por encima de los 500 metros, y no desde 150 como lo hizo el inexperto (o quizás, según algunos, poco inclinado al bombardeo del templo) aviador.[12].
También cabe destacar la presencia de las banderas de España e Hispanoamérica, por ser la Virgen del Pilar la patrona de la Hispanidad.
fresco paintings
All the domes that surround and crown the Holy Chapel are painted. In 1753, Antonio González Velázquez painted the elliptical dome over the chapel of the Virgin and the remaining brothers Ramón and Francisco Bayeu and Francisco de Goya, who decorated the one that bears the name Regina Martirum") ('Queen of the Martyrs') and the vault of the Coreto. The main dome, which covers the organ and Main Choir, and the elliptical dome of the central nave in front of the Choir. The sketches of many of these works are kept in the cathedral museum.
• - Location plan of the paintings on the domes around the Holy Chapel.
In 1752, while construction of the Holy Chapel was beginning, Ventura Rodríguez proposed that the elliptical dome of this space be decorated by the young Antonio González Velázquez, who was in Rome studying with Corrado Giaquinto. After designing the preparatory sketches with the collaboration of his teacher, the Italian painter, he began the execution of the fresco with the theme The construction of the Holy Chapel and the Coming of the Virgin of the Pilar in the half orange, to which he added the decoration of the pendentives with the representation of Four strong women from the Bible. The pictorial ornamentation was inaugurated in 1753. In it González Velázquez showed his academic perfection in drawing and his fluid use of Rococo chromaticism.
It was not until 1772 that the fresco decoration was continued, with the commission that was then made to a young Francisco de Goya for the vault of the choir of the Virgin, where he represented the Adoration of the Name of God. Since those years, the cathedral chapter had commissioned Francisco Bayeu, then Court painter, to do the rest of the domes and vaults that surrounded the Holy Chapel. He began painting the vault located in the front section of the Virgin's chapel, with the theme Regina Sanctorum Omnium ('Queen of All Saints'), and continued with the vault located behind, the one dedicated to the queen of the angels, Regina Angelorum. From 1780 Francisco Bayeu counted on his brother Ramón and his brother-in-law Francisco to finish the crown of the ornamentation of the Virgin. Goya was in charge of the dome located in front of the chapel of San Joaquín with the litany Regina Martirum"). However, the council did not like his loose technique and his unacademic drawing, so, after painting the pendentives with greater classicist adequacy after the first drafts for them had been rejected, he left the project very hurt with the council and at enmity with his brother-in-law Francisco. Ramón Bayeu painted three others domes with the subjects Regina Virginum, Regina Patriarcharum and Regina Confessorum.
After the catastrophe of the War of Independence, we had to wait until the second half of the century to continue with the decorative program. In 1872 the paintings of the segments of the main dome were completed, in which, according to the project of Bernardino Montañés, the most important Aragonese painters of his time collaborated. Montañés painted a ; Marcellin of Unceta the and the of the region; Francisco Lana"), ; Mariano Pescador, and the of Zaragoza; León Abadías, and . These last two also painted the pendentives with the four evangelists.
The Holy Chapel of the Pilar
The Chapel of Our Lady of Pilar is an independent construction within the group of naves of the Cathedral. It constitutes a space, both spacious and intimate, integrated into the temple but with a particular scale. It is made in the classicist baroque style, with cut domes, glory breaks, curved entablatures, and numerous marble sculptures and medallions.
The chapel, built from a design by Ventura Rodríguez between 1750 and 1765 as a jewel to enhance the image of the Virgin, was one of the masterpieces of Spanish Baroque architecture. In it, with materials of great nobility, there is a complete integration of sculpture and architecture. José Ramírez de Arellano - also the architect of the sculptural groups inside - directed the works, since Ventura Rodríguez was only in El Pilar on two occasions and delegated responsibility for the execution from 1754 on to Ramírez de Arellano.
The space is conceived as a baldachin inside the temple and is located under the second section of the central nave "Nave (architecture)"). The plan is curvilinear like a Greek cross with rounded finishes on the plan, covered by an elliptical central dome, on an entablature that runs sinuous in a line of four lobes. The cover is perforated in transparent materials that allow light to pass through and the entire complex is decorated with free-standing sculptures on the cornices and sculptural groups in relief according to a program that includes the need to highlight the Virgin's clique, located off-axis to the viewer's right. The games of curves and volumes are indebted to the work of Bernini and Borromini, to Byzantine architecture, Rococo and Neoclassicism.
The carving of the Virgin in gilded wood measures thirty-six centimeters high and rests on a jasper column, protected by a bronze and silver lining and covered by a mantle up to the feet of the image, except for the second, twelfth and twentieth of each month when the column appears visible on its entire surface. On the rear façade of the chapel the humiliation opens, where the faithful can venerate the Holy Column through an oculus open to jasper.
It is a sculpture in the late Gothic Franco-Burgundian style from around 1435 attributed to Juan de la Huerta, an image maker from Daroca. As for its iconography, we see Mary crowned and wearing a tunic and mantle, which she picks up with her right hand, contemplating the Child Jesus who holds his mother's mantle with his right hand and a bird with his left. The face of the Virgin has tenderness and the Child may have been the subject of a careless restoration.
It was probably an image donated by Dalmacio de Mur with the patronage of Blanca de Navarra, wife of Juan II of Aragón, following the cure of an illness that afflicted the queen at that time.
Main altar altarpiece
The altarpiece of the main altar was made of polychrome alabaster, with a wooden dust cover "Dust cover (architecture)"), by Damián Forment between 1515 and 1518 and is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin. The style of architecture of the altarpiece is late Gothic, although the figurative scenes show fully Renaissance characteristics.
In 1509 the metropolitan council hired Damián Forment to create the bench or predella of the altarpiece of the main altar that would occupy the head of the collegiate church of Santa María, with the requirement that it be "as good and better than the Asseu" (than that of La Seo). In 1511, with the bench almost finished, he would also contract the rest of the altarpiece, with three monumental scenes in its streets: the Assumption in the center, the Birth of the Virgin") to its right and the Presentation of Mary in the temple") to its left. Finally, in 1515, Forment delegated the work of the rest of the architectural decoration to masters hired for his workshop. The altarpiece was completed in 1518.
In the predella, seven scenes are arranged from left to right: Meeting of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne at the Golden Door"), Annunciation, Visitation, Adoration of the Shepherds, Adoration of the Magi, Pieta&action=edit&redlink=1 "Pieta (religion) (not yet written)") and Resurrection, separated by columns with canopies Gothic style that houses statues of saints and apostles. It is the area of the altarpiece where Forment is most advanced, since in the frames of the scenes and its architecture and ornaments, decoration typical of the Renaissance appears, such as putti, cartouches "Cartel (card)") or balusters. It is completed by statues of Santiago el Mayor and Braulio de Zaragoza located in niches on the flanks. heraldic figures supported by angels and medallions. The bank scenes still retain traces of the original polychrome, although in the main streets it has practically disappeared.
Choir
Bordering the main altar, in the westernmost section of the Basilica, there is a Renaissance choir of notable quality carved in Flanders oak wood that makes up a group with stalls topped by a high cornice and mercy "Mercy (support)"), organ and grille.
It was carved by Esteban de Obray, Juan de Moreto and Nicolás Lobato between 1542 and 1548. It is a stall with three rows of seats superimposed in the form of a tier and arranged in an ultra-semicircular plan. On the underside of the seats there is inlay work with yellow boxwood inlays. At first there were 138 seats, but today there are 124 left; some were reused by placing them on the sides of the presbytery of the main altar.
The iconographic program of half-reliefs on the backrests is one of the important works in this area of the Spanish Renaissance. The presidential places contain scenes whose subject is the coming of the Virgin and the construction of the Holy Chapel by Santiago and the converts. The rest is intended to represent passages from the life of Mary and the passion of Christ.
The main organ of the cathedral, whose case was described by Juan Bautista Labaña in 1610 as having "extreme sculpture", was preserved in its original appearance until 1940. It was made by Juan de Moreto and Esteban Ropic" in 1529 in Plateresque style. In the middle of the century it was expanded, to be able to perform the entire classical and romantic repertoire, increasing its register and widening its case, the new parts of which were decorated imitating the style of the original work.
The Mannerist gate was the work of the "Buidador" Juan Tomás Celma, carried out between 1573 and 1578. The marble base is due to Guillermo Salbán.
Coreto, sacristies and other chapels
Around the entire perimeter of the Basilica del Pilar, in the space between the buttresses, there are several private chapels as well as other spaces for use by the chapter. Starting from the Coreto de la Virgen, bordering the Santa Capilla, a route follows in a clockwise direction.
In the central space of the east side, that of the head of the temple, is the Coreto of the Virgin, facing the Holy Chapel. It was built by Julián de Yarza y Lafuente") in 1764 based on the plan of Ventura Rodríguez. It contains a stall with sixty-eight seats in two heights, of which forty-one are in the upper row. It is the work of José Ramírez de Arellano from 1768. The set is completed with an organ from 1720 by Bartolomé Sánchez, whose case was decorated in 1770 with putti from the workshop by Carlos Salas Viraseca, who was also in charge of the stucco decorations on the walls. In 1772, the lowered elliptical vault received the aforementioned Goya fresco, The Adoration of the Name of God. The core is closed by a jasper and bronze fence from 1792 topped with fames and painted wooden angels imitating marble by José Sanz and a medallion with the anagram of the Virgin.
In the southeastern corner of the temple, the first chapel on the right as you enter through the low door that faces the Plaza de las Catedrales, was ordered to be built by Archbishop Tomás Crespo de Agüero, which lies in a niche located in the right wall of it. It is covered with a dome with a lantern on pendentives, all decorated in 1743 in the late Baroque Bolognese style with geometric frescoes, allegorical figures of the theological virtues and the archbishop's coat of arms. The altarpiece of Saint John the Baptist stands out, carved in wood in a way that anticipates the Rococo. The image of the saint dates from around 1700 and is attributed to Gregorio de Mesa"). On the side walls there are two large canvases. On the right Preaching of the Baptist in the Jordan, by Pablo Félix Rabiella y Sánchez, and on the left a Visitation, possibly by Jerónimo Lorieri. Important popular devotion receives a Christ under a canopy arranged in the right corner, the Santo Cristo del Pilar, in the Andalusian baroque style of the 19th century .
It contains an altarpiece from the second half of the century in wood imitating jaspers. The main group is Saint Anne with the Virgin by Antonio Palao y Marco (1852) and on its sides there are statues of San Juan de Dios (right) and San Francisco de Paula (left), carvings from the late 18th century baroque. In the predella three tables from the second half of the century were added, an Annunciation, a possible Adoration of the Magi and the Birth of Christ. On the right side of the chapel there is a funerary monument with sculptures by Ponciano Ponzano y Gascón to General Manuel de Ena, who died in 1851 in the Cuban War, which was paid for by his comrades in arms. On the left are two tables of and by Roland de Mois.
Pilar Museum
In what was until 1977 the prayer room of the Basilica, works of artistic and emotional value related to the cult of the Virgin of Pilar are displayed. The cloaks that cover the column up to the feet of the Virgin stand out, of which there is a large collection with fabrics of great antiquity and value. In the same way, the crowns that adorn the image of Our Lady of Pilar are kept, one of them, that of the canonical coronation of 1905, made of gold and precious stones. Also displayed in this space are the jewels of the Virgin, luxury goldsmithing whose oldest examples, some earrings, date back to the 19th century. You can also see enamels from Limoges, medals of the Virgin and even a silver bull given by the legendary bullfighter Francisco Cúchares to the Virgin in 1839. Liturgical objects (chalices, pastoral rings) complete the collection.
The walls display most of the sketches that were submitted by the authors of the fresco paintings of domes, vaults and walls. But without a doubt the central pieces of the Pilarist treasure are a Book of hours from the 19th century, a small Arabic ivory box from the same century, an autograph letter from Saint Teresa of Jesus and, fundamentally, the Oliphant of Gastón IV of Béarn. It is a carved ivory hunting horn from the beginning of the century that was donated to the temple in 1135 by the widow of the champion of the conquest of Zaragoza, Doña Talesa de Aragón, as a contribution to the new Christian church shortly after Saraqusta was reconquered. Finally, in the center of the room, is located the wooden model of the Holy Chapel that Ventura Rodríguez made in 1754 to serve as a model for the temple.
Music in the Pilar
El primer órgano, hasta donde se sabe, fue construido en 1463 por Enrique de Colonia"). En 1537 construye uno nuevo Martín de Córdoba con la intención de poder competir con el de la Seo.
Guillermo de Lupe") y su hijo Gaudioso reestructuran el órgano mayor entre 1595 y 1602, siguiendo a la reforma que Guillermo había hecho del de la catedral del Salvador en 1577.
En 1657 se sabe que hay varios órganos en la iglesia, quizá cinco de diversos tamaños y posibilidades. La actividad musical es, por tanto, rica y variada durante el Siglo de Oro, pero comenzará a decaer a finales del siglo .
Desde la Edad Media un músico (ministril) acompañaba con el bajón las voces de la capella de músicos cantores. La existencia de polifonía instrumental se documenta desde mediado el siglo en que aparece la polifonía instrumental, con músicos que interpretan al «tenor» y «contrabajón». En el último cuarto de este siglo, formando ya una orquesta de ministriles, acuerdan trabajar para el Concejo Metropolitano de Zaragoza, la Diputación del Reino de Aragón y la iglesia de Santa María la Mayor, predecesora de la Basílica catedral. El archivo musical del Pilar está reunido con el de La Seo, y reúne una cantidad ingente de producción musical desde la Edad Moderna hasta nuestros días.
Entre los más importantes directores de la actividad musical de la Basílica del Pilar destacan los siguientes maestros de capilla y organistas:.
Chapel Masters
• - Century . Juan García de Basurto, Melchor Robledo, Antón Vergara"), Cristóbal Cortés, Juan Pujol.
• - Century . Urbán de Vargas, Juan Marqués, José Ruiz Samaniego, José Alonso Torices, Juan Pérez Roldán, Diego de Cáseda y Zaldívar, Jerónimo Latorre, Miguel Ambiela.
• - Century . Joaquín Martínez de la Roca, Luis Serra, Bernardo Miralles, Cayetano Echevarría, Joaquín Lázaro, Manuel Álvarez "Manuel Álvarez (musician)"), José Gil de Palomar, Vicente Fernández&action=edit&redlink=1 "Vicente Fernández (chapelmaster) (not yet written)").
• - Century . Hilario Prádanos, Antonio Félix Lozano González, Francisco Agüeras.
• - Century . Gregorio Arciniega, Juan Azagra Vicente, José Vicente González Valle.
Organists
• - Century . Mosén Montaña"), Pedro Ricardo"), Martín Monje, Juan Marco").
• - Century . Pedro Blasco"), Juan Luis Lope"), José Muniesa"), Diego Xaraba y Bruna, Jerónimo Latorre, Joaquín Martínez de la Roca.
• - Century . Tomás Soriano"), Ramón Cuéllar.
• - Century . Ramón Ferreñac, Valentín Melón").
• - Century . Pedro León Andía Labarta"),[14] Francisco Agüeras, Gregorio Garcés Til.
• - Annex: Assets of cultural interest of the province of Zaragoza.
• - Annex: Cataloged goods of the province of Zaragoza.
• - Annex: Basilicas and cathedrals of Spain.
• - 12 Treasures of Spain.
• - Tape measuring the Virgen del Pilar.
• - ANSÓN NAVARRO, Arturo") and Belén Boloqui Larraya, «Zaragoza Barroca», in Guillermo Fatás Cabeza (coord.), Historical-artistic guide to Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Institución «Fernando el Católico»; City Council of Zaragoza, 2008, 4th revised and expanded ed., pp. 249-327. Cf. especially the section “Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar”, pages 287-322.— ISBN 978-84-7820-948-4.
• - «El Pilar» Archived August 23, 2018 at the Wayback Machine., Great Aragonese Encyclopedia (online). [Consultation: 7-22-2008].
• - NOUGUÉS SECALL, Mariano, Critical and apologetic history of the Virgin Our Lady of the Pilar of Zaragoza and her temple and tabernacle from the century to the present day, Madrid, Alejandro Gómez Fuentenebro, 1862.
• - ORTIZ ALBERO, Miguel Ángel"), Julián Pelegrín Campo and María Pilar Rivero Gracia, The unknown Pilar, Zaragoza, Heraldo de Aragón, 2006, page 13.—D. L. Z-2597-06. OCLC 433533535.
• - RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wifredo, El Pilar de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Everest, 2000. ISBN 84-241-0044-1.
[2] ↑ a b Textualmente: «[...] in ecclesia beatae Mariae semper Virginis, quae est mater ecclesiarum ejusdem urbis [...]». Cfr. Aimoino, Historia translationis S. Vicentii levitae et mart. ex Hispania ad Castrense in Gallia monasterium: auctore Aimonio monacho ord. S. Benedicti, Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1806, t. 4. Lectio V, pág. 177. Página 13 del documento digital. Apud «Apéndice de documentos», Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva (ed.), Viaje Literario a las iglesias de España, Madrid, Imprenta de Fortanet-Real Academia de la Historia, 1806, tomo IV, págs. 167-209. Biblioteca Virtual del Pensamiento Político Hispánico Saavedra Fajardo. Ficha catalográfica Archivado el 23 de septiembre de 2010 en Wayback Machine..[Consulta 16.9.2010].: https://web.archive.org/web/20100619093025/http://saavedrafajardo.um.es/WEB/archivos/LIBROS/Libro0260.pdf
[3] ↑ a b Miguel Ángel Ortiz Albero, Julián Pelegrín Campo y María Pilar Rivero Gracia, El Pilar desconocido, Zaragoza, Heraldo de Aragón, 2006, pág. 13.—D. L. Z-2597-06 OCLC 433533535.: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/433533535
[5] ↑ Según el artículo «El Pilar» Archivado el 23 de agosto de 2018 en Wayback Machine., Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa (en línea). [Consulta:22-7-2008]:
[6] ↑ Estaba ya previsto que fuera rematado por once cúpulas, diez linternas y cuatro torres, aunque al comienzo del siglo XIX solo se habían construido las cinco cúpulas que coronan y rodean la Santa capilla, y la torre del ángulo suroccidental. Solo en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX fueron construidas las cúpulas y cupulillas restantes, y en el siglo XX las altas torres angulares, que fueron finalizadas en 1961. El interior de las cúpulas y bóvedas fue ideado para ser pintado al fresco, si bien no todas las cúpulas lo fueron.
[7] ↑ Espada Torres, D.M. «Leonor Sala Ruiz de Andrés, la última gran mecenas de la basílica del Pilar». LAS MUJERES Y EL UNIVERSO DE LAS ARTES (Institución Fernando el Católico). ISBN 978-84-9911-594-8.
[8] ↑ Fernández, Ana Ara (2004). «La decoración escultórica del Pilar en el siglo XX: la obra de Antonio Torres». Artigrama (19): 453-471. ISSN 0213-1498. Consultado el 18 de agosto de 2015.: http://www.unizar.es/artigrama/pdf/19/3varia/9.pdf
Finally, in 1941, Ramón Stolz painted the vault over the Main Choir with the Allegory of music glorifying God and in 1955, the immediate elliptical dome with an Allegory of the Rosary. He also painted two frescoes on the walls of the central section. The one located on the side of the Main Sacristy represents the Miracle of Calanda and the one in front, next to the Pilar Museum, The surrender of Granada.
San Vicente
San Valero
Founded after the agreement of May 1, 1632 between Domingo Sanz de Cortes and the Zaragoza council, a transfer of a church patio was agreed and agreed upon to build a chapel in honor of San José, being completed before 1636, being named as its patron and his son Francisco as successor in the will he granted on January 31, 1646.
Later, and during the patronage of the III Marquis of Villaverde, Miguel Sanz de Cortés and Fernández de Heredia, who was the great-grandson of Domingo Sanz de Cortes, the construction of the current temple began, so a new agreement was drawn up in which a space was awarded to the family for the construction of the family chapel according to the designs of the previous one, for which the expenses of the same were charged on a series of family properties and a succession followed without problems until the death without succession of the VII Marquis, José Baldomero Garcés de Marcilla y Muñoz de Pamplona, who left the estates to a niece, Mercedes Bordiu y Garcés de Marcilla, who served as patron of the chapel and her successors until the imposition of litigation by the Marquis of Villaverde in 1949.[13].
It includes a baroque altarpiece from the first half of the 19th century, later renovated with neoclassical and academic additions in the 19th century, which shows sculptures by a follower of José Ramírez de Arellano. On the side walls hang canvases from the century and in the right corner an engraving by Nicolás Grimaldi") made in Rome in 1720.
In the center of the side facing the square is the Main Sacristy, which is not open to the public. It houses goldwork dated from the century that includes busts of Saint Anne, Saint James and Saint Úrsula, Saint Joachim with the Virgin, Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus, Saint James the Pilgrim or Saint Dorothea. It also houses tapestries and furniture from the 19th century, Renaissance panels attributed to Juan de Juanes, baroque canvases, reliquaries and other valuable belongings.
This Portuguese saint has been worshiped in the Pilar since the 19th century. This chapel, from 1713, was one of the first to be built and belongs to the Moncada family, holders of the Marquisate of Aitona, after being donated to them by the council for their financial contribution to the construction of the new baroque temple. In 1755 it was decorated by José Ramírez de Arellano and his workshop, with the construction of a new altarpiece, and by José Luzán"), who frescoed the dome with the theme Glorification of San Antonio de Padua. It is one of the most beautiful in the temple, according to Federico Torralba.
The altarpiece, made of black marble and jaspers ranging from light ocher to earth tones, and with gilding on the capitals of the columns and in the predella, produces one of the most interesting altarpiece architectures in the region, which since the middle of the century, reproduced this combination of materials and chromaticism. It adopts Borrominesco Roman baroque modes, with the sinuous play of columns, intercolumnia, cornices and entablatures. The sculptures of the titular saint with a Child Jesus in his arms in the center, those of Santa Rosa de Lima and San Guillermo located between the monumental Corinthian columns, San Miguel in the attic and the groups of angels, are made by Ramírez de Arellano in polychrome wood. On the side walls this same sculptor made an Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Anthony and the Transit of the same saint in imitation marble stuccoed plasterwork.
It was decorated by the architect Manuel Inclán Valdés") and the sculptors Ramón Subirat y Codorniu") (decoration and painting of the pendentives) and Salvador Páramo") (image of the saint) in the second half of the century. It is not a work of great merit, consisting of a neo-baroque altarpiece whose niche houses the image of Archbishop San Braulio.
It houses a Herrerian wooden altarpiece from circa 1601; In the central niche there is a sculpture of the Virgin of the Rosary, a Christ on the cross in the attic and a group with Saint George on horseback finishing off the altar. On both sides of the altarpiece, on an extension of the bench, stand two personifications of Faith and Hope, very notable works by Carlos Salas Viraseca from around 1775. In the side streets and the bench of the altarpiece there are Mannerist panels with scenes of the Birth, Visitation, Saint Catherine and other martyrs, and two reused canvases from later in the century of Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel.
On the side walls there are four Renaissance panels by Roland de Mois from a dismantled altarpiece, which formed a set with the paintings on the left wall of the aforementioned chapel of Santa Ana: Saint Vincent, Saint Braulio, Dormition of the Virgin and Allegory of Christ with the Holy Family, all of them painted around 1580.
Next, the route of the chapels is interrupted, since the central space at the foot of the temple between the buttresses, on the west side, and under the Main Choir, is occupied by a space closed to the general public: the Chapter House. The next chapel, near the northwest corner of the temple, where the tower is located from which aerial views of Zaragoza can be seen, is the one that serves as a daily parish for non-extraordinary worship. This is the Chapel of San Agustín, known as Parroquia del Pilar.
The altar is presided over by a stewed wood altarpiece of Saint Augustine from around 1725 in a late Baroque style. The sculptures are of good workmanship: Apparition of the Virgin of the Rosary to Santo Domingo de Guzmán with Saint Catherine and Saint Mary Magdalene, of unusual iconography, Saint Jude Thaddeus with the Veronica and Saint Matías, which have been attributed to Juan Ramírez de Mejandre.
In the keystone of the entrance arch to the chapel appears the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Chapter of Zaragoza, to which the inquisitor Pedro Arbués belonged, murdered in La Seo and later canonized as a martyr of the Catholic Church. The chapel contains an altarpiece of the century with a relief of stuccoed wood imitating marble, by Antonio Palao: San Pedro Arbués in Glory (1873) as well as the processional image of the Holy Christ of the Expiration in the mystery of the Seventh Word by Juan Manuel Miñarro López, who belongs to the Brotherhood of the Seven Words and of Saint John the Evangelist and which has been in procession with it on Good Friday mornings since 2014.
Another of the chapels that contains elements of the original Baroque factory inaugurated in 1718, as does that of San Antonio de Padua. From that period, the fresco in the dome is preserved, a Ascent of San Lorenzo to Glory carried by angels, a dynamic baroque composition from 1717 by Francisco del Plano, and the wainscoting or plinth of Valencian tiles. On the sides, two other canvases by the same painter: Saint Lawrence before the Emperor Valerian and The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, from the same period. The expressiveness of the gestures and the loose brushstroke technique stand out.
The altar is a later work, and was designed by Ventura Rodríguez in 1780 and executed by Juan Bautista Pirlet") (jasper and marble stonework) and Juan Fita") (sculpture), who chiseled in a neoclassical academic style the half-relief of the central scene, Ascent of San Lorenzo to the heavens, and the predella scene, Massacre of Pope Sixtus II and his deacons by the troops of Valerian.
Following this route, the space dedicated to the Pilarista Museum would follow, which will be commented last.
Its altar is made up of a classicist gilded wood altarpiece from around 1770 from a convent in Tauste. In 1852, a Saint Joaquín with the Virgin Girl by Antonio Palao was incorporated into its central chamber before a perspective painted by Mariano Pescador. Next to the gospel is the tomb of the first Duke of Montemar José Carrillo de Albornoz, who died in 1747 and was a hero of the 18th century campaigns in Italy, specifically in the Battle of Vitonto), through which the Spanish Monarchy recovered the kingdom of Naples.
It was built in 1754 at the initiative of Archbishop Francisco Ignacio de Añoa y Busto") based on designs by Ventura Rodríguez. It is a space enclosed by walls that is accessed through a portico of black marble and earthy ocher jaspers topped with a triangular front and with walnut doors carved with a relief showing the coat of arms of the archbishop who promoted the work by Ramírez de Arellano.
The room, of great sumptuousness, decorated with sculpture by José Ramírez himself and paintings by Joaquín Inza, has a rectangular, almost square floor plan. Notable are the pavement, inlaid with marble, and four doors carved with Marian prints. Also noteworthy are the walnut cabinets that until the end of the century guarded the "Jewels of the Virgin", currently in the Pilar Museum.
Inside two ornate Rococo urns and on paths like trays, two very effective polychrome decapitated heads of Saint Paul and Saint Peter, also attributed to Ramírez de Arellano, can be seen.
It houses a circular temple from the Cartuja de las Fuentes de Lanaja (Huesca) executed by Carlos Salas Viraseca. Its architecture is classicist baroque and is covered with an openwork dome, as in the Holy Chapel. Although it was decorated with twenty images, only four polychrome seated sculptures of the Fathers of the Church remain. The titular statue of Santiago is due to Antonio Palao, a mid-century sculptor, as are the four images free from the corners of the small baldachin.
Coronation of the Virgin
Aragonese Martyrs
Holy Bishops
James and the converted
Saints Confessors of Aragon
Innumerable martyrs
Aragonese Saints
First Saints of the New Testament
Finally, in 1941, Ramón Stolz painted the vault over the Main Choir with the Allegory of music glorifying God and in 1955, the immediate elliptical dome with an Allegory of the Rosary. He also painted two frescoes on the walls of the central section. The one located on the side of the Main Sacristy represents the Miracle of Calanda and the one in front, next to the Pilar Museum, The surrender of Granada.
San Vicente
San Valero
Founded after the agreement of May 1, 1632 between Domingo Sanz de Cortes and the Zaragoza council, a transfer of a church patio was agreed and agreed upon to build a chapel in honor of San José, being completed before 1636, being named as its patron and his son Francisco as successor in the will he granted on January 31, 1646.
Later, and during the patronage of the III Marquis of Villaverde, Miguel Sanz de Cortés and Fernández de Heredia, who was the great-grandson of Domingo Sanz de Cortes, the construction of the current temple began, so a new agreement was drawn up in which a space was awarded to the family for the construction of the family chapel according to the designs of the previous one, for which the expenses of the same were charged on a series of family properties and a succession followed without problems until the death without succession of the VII Marquis, José Baldomero Garcés de Marcilla y Muñoz de Pamplona, who left the estates to a niece, Mercedes Bordiu y Garcés de Marcilla, who served as patron of the chapel and her successors until the imposition of litigation by the Marquis of Villaverde in 1949.[13].
It includes a baroque altarpiece from the first half of the 19th century, later renovated with neoclassical and academic additions in the 19th century, which shows sculptures by a follower of José Ramírez de Arellano. On the side walls hang canvases from the century and in the right corner an engraving by Nicolás Grimaldi") made in Rome in 1720.
In the center of the side facing the square is the Main Sacristy, which is not open to the public. It houses goldwork dated from the century that includes busts of Saint Anne, Saint James and Saint Úrsula, Saint Joachim with the Virgin, Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus, Saint James the Pilgrim or Saint Dorothea. It also houses tapestries and furniture from the 19th century, Renaissance panels attributed to Juan de Juanes, baroque canvases, reliquaries and other valuable belongings.
This Portuguese saint has been worshiped in the Pilar since the 19th century. This chapel, from 1713, was one of the first to be built and belongs to the Moncada family, holders of the Marquisate of Aitona, after being donated to them by the council for their financial contribution to the construction of the new baroque temple. In 1755 it was decorated by José Ramírez de Arellano and his workshop, with the construction of a new altarpiece, and by José Luzán"), who frescoed the dome with the theme Glorification of San Antonio de Padua. It is one of the most beautiful in the temple, according to Federico Torralba.
The altarpiece, made of black marble and jaspers ranging from light ocher to earth tones, and with gilding on the capitals of the columns and in the predella, produces one of the most interesting altarpiece architectures in the region, which since the middle of the century, reproduced this combination of materials and chromaticism. It adopts Borrominesco Roman baroque modes, with the sinuous play of columns, intercolumnia, cornices and entablatures. The sculptures of the titular saint with a Child Jesus in his arms in the center, those of Santa Rosa de Lima and San Guillermo located between the monumental Corinthian columns, San Miguel in the attic and the groups of angels, are made by Ramírez de Arellano in polychrome wood. On the side walls this same sculptor made an Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Anthony and the Transit of the same saint in imitation marble stuccoed plasterwork.
It was decorated by the architect Manuel Inclán Valdés") and the sculptors Ramón Subirat y Codorniu") (decoration and painting of the pendentives) and Salvador Páramo") (image of the saint) in the second half of the century. It is not a work of great merit, consisting of a neo-baroque altarpiece whose niche houses the image of Archbishop San Braulio.
It houses a Herrerian wooden altarpiece from circa 1601; In the central niche there is a sculpture of the Virgin of the Rosary, a Christ on the cross in the attic and a group with Saint George on horseback finishing off the altar. On both sides of the altarpiece, on an extension of the bench, stand two personifications of Faith and Hope, very notable works by Carlos Salas Viraseca from around 1775. In the side streets and the bench of the altarpiece there are Mannerist panels with scenes of the Birth, Visitation, Saint Catherine and other martyrs, and two reused canvases from later in the century of Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel.
On the side walls there are four Renaissance panels by Roland de Mois from a dismantled altarpiece, which formed a set with the paintings on the left wall of the aforementioned chapel of Santa Ana: Saint Vincent, Saint Braulio, Dormition of the Virgin and Allegory of Christ with the Holy Family, all of them painted around 1580.
Next, the route of the chapels is interrupted, since the central space at the foot of the temple between the buttresses, on the west side, and under the Main Choir, is occupied by a space closed to the general public: the Chapter House. The next chapel, near the northwest corner of the temple, where the tower is located from which aerial views of Zaragoza can be seen, is the one that serves as a daily parish for non-extraordinary worship. This is the Chapel of San Agustín, known as Parroquia del Pilar.
The altar is presided over by a stewed wood altarpiece of Saint Augustine from around 1725 in a late Baroque style. The sculptures are of good workmanship: Apparition of the Virgin of the Rosary to Santo Domingo de Guzmán with Saint Catherine and Saint Mary Magdalene, of unusual iconography, Saint Jude Thaddeus with the Veronica and Saint Matías, which have been attributed to Juan Ramírez de Mejandre.
In the keystone of the entrance arch to the chapel appears the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Chapter of Zaragoza, to which the inquisitor Pedro Arbués belonged, murdered in La Seo and later canonized as a martyr of the Catholic Church. The chapel contains an altarpiece of the century with a relief of stuccoed wood imitating marble, by Antonio Palao: San Pedro Arbués in Glory (1873) as well as the processional image of the Holy Christ of the Expiration in the mystery of the Seventh Word by Juan Manuel Miñarro López, who belongs to the Brotherhood of the Seven Words and of Saint John the Evangelist and which has been in procession with it on Good Friday mornings since 2014.
Another of the chapels that contains elements of the original Baroque factory inaugurated in 1718, as does that of San Antonio de Padua. From that period, the fresco in the dome is preserved, a Ascent of San Lorenzo to Glory carried by angels, a dynamic baroque composition from 1717 by Francisco del Plano, and the wainscoting or plinth of Valencian tiles. On the sides, two other canvases by the same painter: Saint Lawrence before the Emperor Valerian and The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, from the same period. The expressiveness of the gestures and the loose brushstroke technique stand out.
The altar is a later work, and was designed by Ventura Rodríguez in 1780 and executed by Juan Bautista Pirlet") (jasper and marble stonework) and Juan Fita") (sculpture), who chiseled in a neoclassical academic style the half-relief of the central scene, Ascent of San Lorenzo to the heavens, and the predella scene, Massacre of Pope Sixtus II and his deacons by the troops of Valerian.
Following this route, the space dedicated to the Pilarista Museum would follow, which will be commented last.
Its altar is made up of a classicist gilded wood altarpiece from around 1770 from a convent in Tauste. In 1852, a Saint Joaquín with the Virgin Girl by Antonio Palao was incorporated into its central chamber before a perspective painted by Mariano Pescador. Next to the gospel is the tomb of the first Duke of Montemar José Carrillo de Albornoz, who died in 1747 and was a hero of the 18th century campaigns in Italy, specifically in the Battle of Vitonto), through which the Spanish Monarchy recovered the kingdom of Naples.
It was built in 1754 at the initiative of Archbishop Francisco Ignacio de Añoa y Busto") based on designs by Ventura Rodríguez. It is a space enclosed by walls that is accessed through a portico of black marble and earthy ocher jaspers topped with a triangular front and with walnut doors carved with a relief showing the coat of arms of the archbishop who promoted the work by Ramírez de Arellano.
The room, of great sumptuousness, decorated with sculpture by José Ramírez himself and paintings by Joaquín Inza, has a rectangular, almost square floor plan. Notable are the pavement, inlaid with marble, and four doors carved with Marian prints. Also noteworthy are the walnut cabinets that until the end of the century guarded the "Jewels of the Virgin", currently in the Pilar Museum.
Inside two ornate Rococo urns and on paths like trays, two very effective polychrome decapitated heads of Saint Paul and Saint Peter, also attributed to Ramírez de Arellano, can be seen.
It houses a circular temple from the Cartuja de las Fuentes de Lanaja (Huesca) executed by Carlos Salas Viraseca. Its architecture is classicist baroque and is covered with an openwork dome, as in the Holy Chapel. Although it was decorated with twenty images, only four polychrome seated sculptures of the Fathers of the Church remain. The titular statue of Santiago is due to Antonio Palao, a mid-century sculptor, as are the four images free from the corners of the small baldachin.