Description
Contenido
La catedral de Santa María está constituida por un conjunto de edificaciones diferentes realizadas en diferentes épocas y para diversos usos.
La iglesia de Santa María es el edificio principal y más antiguo del conjunto. Tiene orientación este oeste con una ligera inclinación al norte en el extremo oriental.
La capilla de Santiago, abierta en el hastial del brazo del transepto en el lado de la Epístola (sur), es en la actualidad la iglesia parroquial de Santa María "Iglesia de Santa María (Vitoria)"), que tiene una acceso independiente, desde la plaza de Santa María "Plaza de Santa María (Vitoria)").
En el lado sur se encuentra el pórtico absidado que protege la portada y sobre él, en su tercio meridional, se levanta la torre del campanario que se remata con un chapitel alcanzando una altura de unos sesenta metros.
Por el lado oriental se ubican una serie de edificios de servicios, entre los que destaca la sacristía tardobarroca.
El templo presenta planta de cruz latina, con tres naves "Nave (arquitectura)"), la central de mayor altura que las laterales, y cubiertas con bóvedas de crucería, con amplio transepto y cabecera. En su interior tiene cuatro capillas rectangulares y una girola a la que se abren otras tres capillas poligonales. Cuenta, además, con un hermoso y frágil triforio y un pórtico del siglo que contiene esculturas muy interesantes.
The porch
The façade of the Santa María portico is considered one of the best manifestations of peninsular plastic art of the century. The chapel of La Piedad, built at the request of Abbot Diego Fernández de Paternina in the 19th century, alters it on the north side.
It was added to the cathedral complex in the 16th century and modified in the 16th century. Initially, the north, center and south naves were extended in sections with equal spans, but an abscised background was added to the north and the span was expanded in the east-west direction, reversing the proportion of the sections of the church. Finally, a space of three straight sections was formed, the middle section being slightly square in plan and topped by a pentagonal "apse".
The space of the portico is covered with vaults wider than those of the temple's naves, which rest on flatter transverse arches. Among its keys there is a mixture of terceletes, ligatures and bows. The first and third vaults, which correspond to the extension of the side naves, have straight ribs, while in the central and back vaults they are curved to brace the ribs using medallions.
The cover is made according to a tripartite façade scheme. In the left portal, scenes from the life of San Gil "Gil (saint)") can be seen on its tympanum (current iconographic studies cast doubt on this statement). It is planned as a superposition of friezes which increases the narrative. In the lower registers the salvation of some sailors and the meeting with the monarch are represented, in the second register and the resurrection of a child and the construction of a monastery in the third. Accompanying the façade, the archivolts and pilasters continue in the composition of the former arches and ribs of the vaults.
In the central portal the life of the Virgin is told. The central register deals with the Ascension, Pentecost, the journey of the apostles and the death of Mary and is finished with the scene of the coronation of the Virgin by her son. The tympanum of this portal is occupied by an image of the Virgin with the child of the century.
The right portal shows the final judgment. In it you can see Saint Michael weighing the souls, which are heading either to the door of Glory or to the procession of hell.
On the jambs there are different images that represent figures from the Old Testament such as Isaiah "Isaiah (prophet)"), Ezekiel "Ezekiel (prophet)"), Solomon or the Queen of Sheba and figures of saints such as Margaret, Magdalene, Martha, etc. There are also images of the Virgin with child, the archangel Gabriel and the Annunciation. Originally the entire portico was polychrome.
To avoid drafts, the openings that have recently been opened and covered by glass were closed.
Through a video projection system, called "the portico of light" you can see the evolution of polychromy over time, from the 19th century to the 20th century.
It is expected that once the restoration is completed this space will be dedicated to cultural use as part of the "Cultural Agenda of the Cathedral".
The tower
Between the centuries and the bell tower rises above the first section of the portico. This tower is made of ashlar on its main façade, the south, which faces the square, and of masonry on the other three sides. A large cornice of good stonework was built on the shaft and on which is the body of octagonal bells and on top of this the wooden and flat tile spire (it had to be rebuilt after its destruction in a fire in the century).[8].
Nave
The nave has an area of 404 m² in the shape of a Latin cross and three naves with five sections, with the central one higher than the side ones. With side chapels, transept, chancel and ambulatory in which three other chapels are located. The nave is covered by a clerestory and is covered by ribbed vaults.
In the side naves, chapels have been made between the beginnings of the buttress abutments. These chapels are covered with ovix vaults supported by robust arches.
The central nave is covered with light and simple pointed vaults. At its feet, due to the remodeling of the century, it is made with terceletes and ligatures and on arches with a smaller resistant section. The nave is illuminated with pointed windows in its southern part that overlook the plaza and intramuros and a small oculus on the north side.
The restoration by Manuel Lorente, in the sixties, made a strong alteration to the windows, in the first window a large oculus was placed on the western wall. Between the second and fourth sections there are six small oculi that illuminate the nave (four of them made by Lorente) and in the section before the transept there are two narrow and high windows.
During the restoration works, the entire ground has been excavated, revealing the foundations of the temple and bringing to light remains of the temple prior to the current construction. After the reconstruction, in 2012, it will be covered with a definitive floor that will rest on large wooden beams, which in turn will rest on the ashlar arches that link the bases of all the pillars, giving structural stability to the building.
More than two thousand burials have been found underground, a hundred of them belonging to an old outdoor cemetery dating back to the 19th century. From the century onwards, interior burials began to be carried out but without abandoning the outdoor cemetery that functioned until the century. Beginning in the century, the wealthy social class of the city began to build mausoleums and private chapels in which sculptures and inscriptions were important elements. Examples of this are the chapels of San Bartolomé, La Concepción and Santo Cristo.
In 1705, the interior cemetery was regulated by funerary plots that belonged to the deceased and his family. The accumulation of burials meant that in the century the service could no longer be provided and shortly after, the health regulations promoted by Carlos III in 1787 required burials to be carried out in outdoor cemeteries. In Vitoria, in 1809, the Santa Isabel cemetery was built at the entrance to the city.
The ambulatory
Decagonal in shape, it has an ambulatory with trapezoidal sections that give entrance to five chapels, the three central ones being hemidecagonal and the two extreme ones trapezoidal. The apse chapels are illuminated by large windows that open onto the round passage and are located between the buttresses of the vaults. The trapezoid-shaped chapels have a single window, which also overlooks the ring passage. The walls that form the chapels are part of the wall that surrounded the city.
The roof of the ambulatory and its chapels are ribbed, with those of the ambulatory and the extreme chapels being simple quadripartites and those of the apsidioles being hexapartite vaults with inserts corresponding to each side of the chapel and its entrance.
On the outside there is almost no trace that detects the ambulatory except for the windows and buttresses that rise above the wall which hides any other trace of its construction.
The transept
Unlike the ambulatory, the transept is perfectly visible from the outside of the building. The height of the central nave makes it stand out over the chapels, the ambulatory and the side naves. It is a slender space that has been reduced in its amplitude by the soarcs of the counterresa. It has three sections in each of its arms and from it you can access the ambulatory and the chapels.
It is made of masonry with some ashlar. On its eastern side there are rectangular chapels that are located in the free spaces between two towers. The chapels are illuminated with loophole windows and covered with quadripartite pointed vaults built of ashlar.
The main altar is covered with cross vaults of great breadth and lightness, with transverse arches and ogives of smaller section and thinner inserts than those of the lower vaults.
The nave is illuminated by open windows in the east wall, of which 4 are of antique construction and 2, those at the ends, made in the restoration of Lorente who also added some arches in the walls of the southern part.
Chapels
Inside the cathedral there are several chapels of different origins, the most relevant of which are:
Located on the south wall of the nave, it is accessed through an Ionic arch with fluted pilasters. It is covered by ribbed vaults with terceletes and 9 keys. The Sáez de Maturana coat of arms has been placed in the central key and the others are decorated with the figures of the apostles and fathers of the church. In 1826 Prudencio María de Verástegui was buried here.
It was founded by the canon Fernán Martínez de Pangua") at the end of the century in an early Baroque style. The façade is Tuscan with a broken pediment on which two shields appear. One, the small one, belongs to the founder of the chapel and the other, the largest, corresponds to Gabriel de Ortiz de Caicedo") who renovated it in the year 1578. The founder is buried there and the renovator and his wife have two praying alabaster figures.
With an octagonal plan and covered by a spherical dome that on the outside is a cistern vault"), it was built by Francisco de Galarreta"). Access is through the nave through a door with a Tuscan iron grille, above it a broken pediment and above it a coat of arms.
This chapel was used as the baptistery of the cathedral and there is a baptismal font. Under its floor there is a crypt that has been used as an episcopal pantheon. This crypt is covered by ultramarine blue stucco, the color of the virgin's mantle in medieval iconography. The access stairs and the bronze copper plinth, which is located in the middle of the crypt space, are made of black Marquina marble. The coffins of bishops Ramón Fernández de Pieola, Carmelo Ballester, Mateo Mújica and José María Larrrauri are kept in the bronze chest.
Juan de Ugalde Garibay founded this chapel in the first half of the century. In the century it had to be closed in an attempt to remedy the structural problems of the building by placing a buttress inside. It was reopened in the 1960 renovation by placing a segmental arch (an arch that is smaller than the semicircle of the same radius). It has been used as a Sanskritist for altar boys and for the choir's room.
It was closed during the renovation of the early 1960s to install high windows that replaced the wooden gates.
At the end of the century this chapel was built taking advantage of the space between two buttresses. It is one of the chapels with the greatest popular devotion.
It was made in the century and was renovated in the . Above its entrance appears the coat of arms of the Pérez de Anda family. It was Martín Pérez de Anda, owner of the Torre de Anda") located next to the cathedral and which is currently the oldest building in the city, who ordered it to be built.
During the second half of the century, the chapel of Santiago was built at the south end of the transept. It is an enclosure with a single nave with two sections that is closed with a hemidecagonal apse with a straight anteapse. On the sides of the nave there are four chapels, the two on the south side being longer than those on the north. This chapel is attached to the wall which requires the corresponding adaptation to be carried out due to the lack of symmetry of the chapels.
The choir
The choir is located at the foot of the nave. It was carried out in 1530 as part of the enrichment of the temple when it was converted into a collegiate church. It is built on a ribbed vault with terceletes that has the keystones with rich ornamentation done in the Plateresque style. The central theme is the Assumption of the Virgin. The rest of the keys are decorated with saints and apostles.
The choir is completed with an organ from the German company "Walcker of Ludwigsburg" that was made in the century by reusing parts of a previous organ from the century. The restoration of the temple in the 1960s damaged the organ, which had to be restored in 1979.
The sacristy
In the century, the sacristy was built in the southeastern part between the ambulatory and the transept. This has an octagonal plan and is covered with a rasillas vault. This room is complemented by a series of attached spaces with entrance from it and from the street intended for different uses, warehouse, offices, storage room, classrooms... which occupy and develop on two or three floors between the street level and the cathedral floor. Some of these spaces were built at the same time as the sacristy while others were added later.