Burgos cathedral

The Santa Iglesia Catedral Basílica Metropolitana de Santa María is a cathedral temple of Catholic worship dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in the Spanish city of Burgos.

Its construction began in 1221, following French Gothic patterns. It underwent very important modifications in the 15th and 16th centuries: the needles of the main façade, the chapel of the Constable and the transept dome, flamboyant Gothic elements that give the temple its unmistakable profile. The last important works (the sacristy or the chapel of Santa Tecla) already belong to the 18th century, a century in which the Gothic portals of the the main facade. The construction and subsequent remodeling were made with limestone extracted from the quarries of the nearby town of Hontoria de la Cantera.

The decorative elements and the liturgical furniture inside belong to various artistic styles, from Gothic itself, Renaissance or Baroque.

The cathedral preserves works by extraordinary artists, such as the architects and sculptors of the Colonia family (Juan, Simón de Colonia and Francisco); the architect Juan de Vallejo, the sculptors Gil de Siloé, Felipe Vigarny, Rodrigo de la Haya, Martín de la Haya, Juan de Ancheta and Juan Pascual de Mena, the sculptor and architect Diego de Siloé, the ironworker Cristóbal de Andino, the glassmaker Arnao de Flandes or the painters Alonso de Sedano, Mateo Cerezo, Sebastiano del Piombo or Juan Ricci, among many others.

The design of the main façade is related to the classic French Gothic of the great cathedrals (Paris or Reims). It consists of three bodies topped by two square side towers. The openwork needles of Germanic influence were added in the 15th century and are the work of Juan de Colonia. Outside, the portals of the Sarmental and the Coronería are also outstanding, both Gothic from the 13th century, and the portal of the Pellejería, with Renaissance-Plateresque influences from the 16th century. The interior elevation of the temple takes the Bourges Cathedral as a reference.

There are numerous architectural, sculptural and pictorial treasures inside. They stand out among them:

• The Gothic-Silver Cymbal, first raised by Juan de Cologne in the century xv and reconstructed by Juan de Vallejo in the xvifollowing Juan de Langres' plans.
• La Capilla del Condestable, in the Gothic style of the island, in which the Colony, Diego de Siloé and Felipe Vigarny worked.
• Gil de Siloé's Hispanic-Plamenic Gothic altarpiece for the Santa Ana Chapel.
• The large table above table La Sagrada Familia Sebastiano del Piombo.
• The choir sillery.
• The late reliefs of the Girala, of Vigarny.
• The numerous Gothic and Renaissance graves.
• The Renaissance Escalera Dorada, Diego de Siloé.
• The Holy Christ of Burgos, image of great devotional tradition.
• The tomb of the Cid Campeador and his wife, Doña Jimena, his letter of caps and his chest.
• The Papamoscas, an articulated statue that opens the mouth by giving the bells of the hours.

The Burgos cathedral was declared a National Monument on April 8, 1885 and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on October 31, 1984. It is the only Spanish cathedral that has this distinction from UNESCO independently, without being united to the historic center of a city (as in the cases of Salamanca, Santiago de Compostela, Ávila, Córdoba, Toledo, Alcalá de Henares or Cuenca) or in the company of other buildings, as in Oviedo, Seville or Zaragoza. It is also the highest-ranking Catholic temple in Castilla y León as it is the only temple that, being a metropolitan cathedral, is also a basilica.

In 1994, due to the detachment of a figure from the façade that occurred a few years earlier, extensive restoration work began. In total, 30 million euros have been invested, making it the European monument that has received the most funds for its restoration and that has lasted the longest.

History of the cathedral

Romanesque building from the 11th century

Burgos was converted into an episcopal see in 1075 by King Alfonso VI and the authority of Pope Gregory VII, who thus gave canonical continuity to the episcopal tradition of the old diocese of Oca, whose prelate already appears in the year 589 as signatory of the III Council of Toledo, in the Visigothic period.

The monarch promoted the construction of a cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary of which its traces are not known, but which is supposed to be Romanesque and of the type of contemporary works (the disappeared church of Silos, that of the monastery of San Pedro of Arlanza, that of San Martín de Frómista or the cathedral of Jaca). There is documentary evidence that the monarch donated for the great work the enclosure occupied by a royal palace that had belonged to his father Fernando I and a small church dedicated to Santa María and that was under construction.

In 1096 the works on this cathedral were finished, but it soon became too small for the needs of a city that was the symbolic capital of the kingdom, a powerful episcopal see (the cathedral chapter already had more than thirty members before the year 1200) and an increasingly dynamic shopping center. The decision to build a new cathedral was finally made at the beginning of the xiii century. As was common at the time, the Romanesque building was destroyed (of which only a few sculptural remains remain) and on its site, enlarged with the demolition of adjoining houses donated by Bishop Marino, the new Gothic cathedral was built.

Plant

Current plant, 2008 from Burgos Cathedral started in 1221.

Gothic foundation and works in the 13th and 14th centuries

South side, from San Fernando Square.

The first stone of the new cathedral was laid on July 20, 1221 in the presence of the promoters of the temple: King Ferdinand III of Castile and Bishop Mauricio, prelate of the diocese of Burgos since 1213. It can be assumed that The first master builder was an anonymous French architect, although some researchers give the name of Canon Johan de Champagne, documented in 1227, most probably brought to Burgos by Bishop Mauricio himself, after the trip he had made through France and Germany. to arrange the marriage of the monarch with Beatriz de Suabia, a wedding ceremony that took place precisely in the old Romanesque cathedral.

The construction of the cathedral, located right at the point where the slope of the hill presided over by the Castle begins to rise, began with the head and the presbytery, this place where the founding bishop was buried, whose remains were later transferred to the center of the capitular choir. Around the year 1240, the so-called Master Enrique, also of Gallic origin, took over the direction of the works, who would later take charge of the construction of the cathedral of León and who was undoubtedly inspired by the Cathedral of Reims, with whose façade the gable of the Burgos seo bears great similarities. The works advanced very quickly and by 1238, the year of the death of the founding prelate, buried in the presbytery, the chancel and a good part of the transept and the naves were almost finished. The consecration of the temple took place in 1260, although there is evidence of the celebration of divine office in it since the year 1230.

Between the second half of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century, the chapels in the side aisles were completed and a new cloister was built. Master Enrique, who died in 1277, was replaced by master Johan Pérez, who was already Hispanic. Other later stonemasons were Aparicio Pérez, active in 1327, Pedro Sánchez de Molina and Martín Fernández, who died respectively in 1396 and 1418.

Extensions and reforms in the 15th to 18th centuries

In the 15th century the Colonia family incorporated the spiers of the towers on the main façade, the dome over the transept and the Chapel of the Constables. In the 16th century, in addition to the modifications made to various chapels, the construction of a new dome by Juan de Vallejo stands out, replacing that of Juan de Colonia (sunk after a hurricane). In the 18th century the Chapel of Santa Tecla, the Chapel of the Relics and the Sacristy were built.

Restorations from the 19th and 20th centuries

View of the cathedral and the arch of Santa Maria at the beginning of the century XIX

Aspect of the cathedral at the end of the century XIX.

The cathedral of Burgos owes its large number of works of art from the 13th centuries to the xviii, above all, to the fact that during the xix and xx no decisive restoration was undertaken.

Outside the scope of the new cloister, only the chapel of Santo Cristo or Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, located in the west area of the old cloister, was essentially reformed after the year 1800. The renovation began with the transfer of the highly revered crucifix of Santo Cristo from the Real Monasterio de San Agustín to the chapel that, from then on, was called the chapel of Santo Cristo de Burgos. In the 1890s, Vicente Lampérez y Romea, the cathedral's master architect since 1887, undertook a thorough restoration of this chapel, removing the added plaster from the walls and vaults and completely renovating the doorway facing the nave. The Neo-Gothic tracery windows, the blind arcades in the walls and most of the other architectural elements also date back to this restoration.

Between 1899 and 1911, Lampérez also restored the so-called new cloister, managing to essentially recover its original shape. In the cloister, a third level had been built on top with small baroque windows that this architect had removed and, incidentally, opened the original cloister windows that had remained almost closed. The installation of ornamental stained glass windows following ancient models and techniques represented the end of the restoration. While the upper body of the cloister hardly underwent any changes, the lower cloister has been remarkably restored. The shapes of its ribs, apparently late Gothic, are due to Lampérez. Before the restoration, the lower cloister was divided into several compartments and, in general, in a state of poor conservation. It is probable that during the restoration of the cloister, the stairwell that had been added later, located in the interior southwest corner of the cloister itself, was removed. Subsequently, the connection between both levels of the cloister is only established through a wooden staircase located under the chapel of San Jerónimo.

The most recent restoration of the cathedral, by the architect Marcos Rico Santamaría, has replaced the roof with a light steel framework. In relation to the freely suspended rib star in the central tower of the transept, a glass surface has been laid that achieves the complete illumination of the rib framework. Regardless of these last measures, there have been few recent attempts to modify the architectural and sculptural substance of the cathedral. On August 12, 1994, a statue of San Lorenzo fell off the final section of the north tower of the main façade, which made public the immediate need to resume protection and conservation measures for the monument.

Finally, other contemporary interventions are noteworthy that, without attempting any modification of the monument, have contributed notably to the enhancement of the cathedral, such as the removal at the beginning of the s. xx of some constructions that had been attached to the temple, some were homes, such as the houses bought and demolished by the Burgos City Council under the mandate of Lucas Saiz Sevilla, while others were buildings for ecclesiastical use such as the Archbishop's Palace.

External architecture

Facade of Santa Maria

Facade of Santa Maria.

Facade of Santa Maria, rosette and gallery.

When you go down the stairs that go down to the Plaza de Santa María, you can see the western façade of the temple, inspired by those of the cathedrals of Paris and Reims.

In the lower section, the Portal of Santa María opens, formed by three pointed and flared arches that shelter the central Puerta Real, or Puerta del Perdón, and those of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, on the sides. This doorway was the work of the 13th century and, with its iconography dedicated to the Virgin, it was considered the most important Gothic-style sculptural manifestation in Castile, but its serious deterioration forced the austere reconstruction of the side doors, in 1663 by Juan de Pobes, and the central one, in neoclassical style, with a lintelled opening and triangular pediment, in 1790; The reliefs of the Conception and the Coronation, left by the hand of Juan de Pobes, were placed on the tympanums of the sides, and on the spandrels, two double side arches that shelter two statuettes.

Facade of the illuminated cathedral.

The second body of the central street of the façade is the work of the 13th century and in it there is a rose window with a Cistercian air, with tracery of six-pointed star, or Solomon's seal. In the third body of the same street there is an elegant gallery, marked out by individual spires and various pinnacles, and made up of two large windows with mullions and tracery of three quadrilobed oculi; Under the eight small arches that form the mullions of both arches are placed the statues of the first eight kings of Castile, from Fernando I to Fernando III. The street is crowned with a fine railing-cresting of pointed arches on which stands a statue of the Virgin and Child, accompanied by the legend, alluding to the Mother of Christ, Pulchra es et decora. This auction was made in the middle of the 15th century by Juan de Colonia.

Over the side gates of the first body, there are two almost twin towers from the 13th century and three bodies, with pilasters decorated with pinnacles and statues in its angles, and decorated ogival openings on each face of each body: one flared with a mullion and oculus tracery, covered with stained glass windows, in the first; two twins without mullion and without tracery, in the second; and another two twins with mullions and tracery, in the third.

View from the Paseo del Espolón.

Above these towers, in the middle of the 15th century, Juan de Colonia raised two spiers or pyramidal spiers with octagonal bases and fine openwork that definitively configured the silhouette of the Burgos seo. His Swavo-German progeny coincides with the project for the Cologne Cathedral, which the master Juan was able to see, although the spiers of the German city were not completed until the century. xix . The ones built up to that time were those of the Cathedral of Freiburg im Breisgau and that of Basel. The Burgos spires were raised with the economic contributions of Bishop Alonso de Cartagena and his successor in the see, Luis de Acuña, whose coats of arms, along with those of the Castilian-Leonese monarchy, appear on the parapets that connect with the cusps. of the towers On these parapets, the master Juan also arranged the legend pax vobis and the sculpture of Christ showing the traces of his Passion, in one, and the legend ecce Agnus Dei (behold the Lamb of God) and a sculpture of Saint John the Baptist, in the other.

The entire façade is marked out by two polygonal turrets, decorated with lobed arches, with pinnacles and with statues and topped with pyramidal spires that ascend to the start of the spires of the towers; inside they house two spiral staircases that ascend to the clerestory and to the vaults of the cathedral.

Facade and Gate of the Sarmental

Sarmental Gate (s. xiii).

Less known as the Sacramental Gate, this portal, open in the southern arm of the transept and overlooking the Plaza del Rey San Fernando, made of stone, from which it is accessed by saving a steep staircase, it was built approximately between 1230 and 1240. It is one of the best sculptural ensembles of Gothic classicism of the century xiii in Spain. It is dedicated to the archaic theme of Christ in Majesty, although using an innovative plastic.

The central and most artistically refined element is the tympanum, the execution of which is attributed to a Frankish artist referred to as the Master of the Beau Dieu de Amiens. What is undoubted is the influence of the sculpture of the cathedral of Amiens in the magisterial doorway of Burgos. In this almost triangular space, Jesus is represented seated as Pantokrator showing the Book of the Law and, surrounding him, the Four Evangelists, in their case represented in two ways: iconically, with themselves leaning over their writing desks writing the Gospels, and symbolically, by the Tetramorphs. Below, separated by a lintel, appears a complete Apostolate in a seated pose, attributed to another French artist known as the Master of the Sarmental. The tympanum is surrounded by three archivolts that occupy the 24 elders of the Apocalypse, playing or tuning medieval musical instruments, several choirs of angels and an allegory of the Arts. This iconographic set must have been carved by local sculptors directed by the French masters.

Sarmental Facade.

The door is divided by a mullion in which appears, covered by a canopy on which the Lamb is effigy, a modern statue (replacing the deteriorated original, which could also have been carved by the Master of the Sarmental) representing a bishop; It is tradition to identify the person portrayed as Mauricio, although it could well be Asterio or Saint Indalecio, the first bishop of Almería, martyr and Christianizer of Burgos. On the side jambs are sculpted six figures, later than the rest of the portal, four of which represent Moses, Aaron, Saint Peter and Saint Paul; the other two are not easily identifiable.

Although the Portal concentrates all the interest, the rest of the gable cannot be overlooked, flanked by robust buttresses topped with pinnacles. It is a later work, from the late 13th century. Its two upper bodies, structured in the similarity of the central body of the Facade of Santa María, are occupied by a rose window and above it an open gallery with three arches with intradoses pierced with triple quatrefoils and supported by mullions in front of which a statuary interpreted as the Divine Liturgy, where Christ administers the Eucharist flanked by twelve ceriferous and thuriferous angels.

Currently, tourist visits enter the Cathedral through the Puerta del Sarmental.

Facade and Gate of the Coronería

Coronery Gate (s. xiii).

On the gable end of the north arm of the transept, at the height of Fernán González street but at a level several meters higher than the floor of the temple, is the portal of the Coronería, or Puerta de los Apóstoles, which from inside the cathedral it communicates with the nave through the Golden Staircase by Diego de Siloé, the author of the railings being the master Hilario, also designed by Diego de Siloé. It is a work carried out between the years 1250 and 1257 by local artists belonging to the circle of maestro Enrique, sometimes called maestro de la Coronería. Fully Gothic, part of the sculptural themes nevertheless prolong the Romanesque tradition. In addition, the surroundings of the door were reformed in the xviii, in 1786, with a semicircular arch with large voussoirs and in the Baroque style, which it replaced a Gothic mullion in which the figure of God the Father would be represented. Shortly after undertaking the remodeling, the council decided to close this door due to the excessive and annoying traffic of residents who descended towards the lower part of the city with supplies and utensils. Thus ended another transfer of people, this pious one, since pilgrims following the Camino de Santiago accessed the cathedral through the Coronería.

Tester of the facade of the Coronery.

Below and above the jambs, and extending along the surrounding wall, forming friezes, there are a series of pointed and trefoil-shaped blind arches, which in the lower plinth are mounted on paired little columns with plant capitals. This blind gallery of trefoils and little columns serves as the base for an entire Apostolate, made up of round statues of almost life-size. There are six on each side, attached to the wall and separated by the jambs.

The three archivolts are adorned by reliefs of seraphim on the inside, thuriferous angels on the middle, and scenes of the resurrection of the dead on the outside. The eardrum, divided into two parts, represents the Last Judgment. On the lintel just above the door there is a long scene in relief presided over by San Miguel with a scale weighing the souls; he is surrounded, on the left, by demons who try to unbalance the weight of sins in his favor, as well as the damned who are led to Hell, and, on the right, a small house with an open door that represents the entrance to paradise, in which there are already some noblemen, a king, a queen, a hooded monk and a Franciscan religious, the blessed. This motif of psychostasis is an iconographic heritage of Romanesque art. In the upper part of the tympanum there is another common Romanesque motif, the Deesis, with Christ enthroned as universal judge, with his arms raised, showing the wound in his side and flanked by the Virgin and Saint John who implore mercy for the souls of the unfortunate. At the apex of the tympanum, on some clouds, some angels carry the insignia of the Passion. The attempts at drama and the gesticulating expression shown by several of the images on this cover distance them from full French classicism and place them in relation to a more naturalistic current with a clear Hispanic flavour.

This doorway is considered to be related to that of the Judgment on the western façade of León Cathedral and with the iconographic theme of the Reims and Chartres cathedrals, although its most obvious reference is the neighboring Puerta del Sarmental, whose perfect balance, however, it fails to achieve.

The façade of the front of the Coronería extends upwards with a large window with a triple staggered arch and above it, marked by openwork spires, a gallery of three pointed arches, with mullions and tracery of three quadrilobed circles. Attached to the mullions are twelve crowned statues alluding to Castilian royalty and, attached to the spandrels of the arches, thurifer angels. Continuing with what is seen on the Sarmental façade, the gable end of the Coronería ends at the top with a railing made up of small arches.

Pellejería Gate

Door of the Pellejeria (s. xvi).

From the Plaza de La Llana you can see the Puerta de la Pellejería, less known as Puerta del Canalejo, which, under a window similar to the ones in the apse, opens on the eastern wall of the north arm of the transept, on the corner with the Gate of the Coronería and inside with the Golden Staircase. It was ordered to be carried out in 1516 by Bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca as an alternative to the access through the Coronería Gate, which was given a non-religious use by the inhabitants of the upper part of the city, who took advantage of it to reach the lower part in a way fast and sheltered, going down a staircase and through the Cathedral. Its author, Francisco de Colonia, grandson of Juan and son of Simón, conceived this façade as a Gothic altarpiece with two bodies and three lanes, plus an attic, or pediment, but with Plateresque decoration on its pilasters, friezes and entablatures.

In the central street, in the first body, the door opens, with a semicircular arch, with an archivolt decorated with statuettes of the Apostles under canopies, which follow the direction of the arch; in the second body there are two reliefs that represent the martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist; in the attic, flanked by the statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, a semicircular pediment houses a relief of the Virgin enthroned with the Child, between musical angels and with the patron bishop kneeling to the left; In the side streets, under each coat of arms of the prelate Fonseca, there are images of various saints which, like the coats of arms, were made before the year 1523 by Bartolomé de la Haya. Although of great value for its artistic detail, the Puerta de la Pellejería suffers from a total lack of proportion, a consequence of the narrow space in which the authors had to work.

It should be added that the central nave uses double flying buttresses for the discharge of forces in the lateral naves, taken from the great French temples such as the Basilica of Saint-Denis and the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Interior architecture and chapels

Major Chapel look.

If the side chapels and the various adjoining rooms built in later architectural stages are excluded, the temple has a Latin cross plan, with dimensions of 84 by 59 meters, which form three naves, the central one being the widest (11 meters) elevated (25 metres) and the lateral ones being fused at the head by means of an ambulatory or ambulatory, and, cutting them perpendicularly, a transept of a nave oriented on the north-south axis. The longitudinal axis of the naves of the east-west axis is divided into nine sections, three of which correspond to the deep Main Chapel, plus the transept and the pentagonal head; the transept or transverse nave consists of six sections, three on each side and the same height as the central nave.

Juan de Vallejo. Cimborrio.

The elevations consist of octagonal pillars, with a cylindrical core and attached columns, except for those that support the transept arches, which are only cylindrical and much thicker. The roofs are solved with ribbed vaults with a spine, simple in most of the sections and composed of terceletes and warped in some sections, as in the transept. The vaults of the sections of the ambulatory have five or six radii, and those of the sections of the central nave are barlongas, that is, markedly rectangular.

The elegant clerestory that runs along the entire upper part of the walls of the central nave and the transept, immediately below the stained glass windows, is characteristic. Each arcade, with a round arch scalloped with human heads, presents an elaborate intrados consisting of seven openings, trefoils and quatrefoils, pointed and trefoil arches separated by six mullions and a parapet as an openwork balustrade with a flamboyant motif. The sections of the clerestory near the transept have more lively flamboyant decoration; It was the result of a modification at the end of the 15th century carried out perhaps by Juan de Colonia, at which time the parapets were also made at the initiative of the bishop Acuña, whose arms are displayed at various points. This elevation model, with pillars, clerestory and stained glass windows, seems to be inspired by that of the Bourges cathedral.

At the top of the walls there are large windows with double ogive split glass and upper rose window. There are three rose windows: the one on the façade of Santa María and the ones that preside over the ends of the transept.

Major Ship

• The Papamoscas and the Martinillo

The Papamoscas.

At the foot of the main nave, at a great height, there is a clock with an articulated figure that, every hour on the hour, moves an arm with which it rings the bell and opens its mouth at the same time: it is about an automaton from the 18th century century that receives the name of Flycatcher. To his right, on a balcony, another automaton, the Martinillo, is in charge of announcing the quarter hours by striking the bells that flank him.

• Chapel

It consists of three sections, the first, adjacent to the transept, with a complex ribbed vault and the next two with a simple ribbed vault, plus the pentagonal apse. The main altarpiece presides over the space, a work in the Romanesque Renaissance style begun in 1562 by Rodrigo de la Haya and completed after his death in 1577 by his brother, Martín de la Haya. Includes sculptural collaborations by Juan de Ancheta. After the architecture and sculpture were completed in 1580, in the following years the artists Gregorio Martínez and Diego de Urbina executed the gilding and polychromy. The altarpiece is presided over by the image of Santa María la Mayor, the head of the cathedral, in the Gothic-Flemish style from the mid-15th century . In the presbytery there are some Gothic tombs, among them, that of the infant Juan de Castilla el de Tarifa, who was the son of King Alfonso X of Castile.

• Coro and trascoro

Situated in the middle of the main nave and immediately before the transept, the most outstanding element of the cathedral choir is the walnut stalls, a monumental U-shaped set of sculptures, mostly hand-carved. from the year 1505 and in Plateresque style by Felipe Bigarny, who chiseled a profuse series of reliefs with religious iconography on it. Until the year 1522 the lateral steps were located on both sides of the chancel of the Main Chapel. The transverse course and smaller parts of the stalls parallel to the axis of the nave were carved at other times later in the 16th century and at the beginning of the xvii. The space houses a grill by Juan Bautista Celma, two organs, one Baroque and the other Neoclassical, and the recumbent figure of Bishop Mauricio, a Gothic work from the 13th century carved in wood and covered in copper with appliqués of gemstones and enamels from Limoges. Externally, parallel to the side naves and the gable at the foot of the Cathedral, the choir ensemble is resolved in a classicist baroque retrochoir from the beginning of the 17th century, a structure that houses valuable alabaster sculptures and a collection of canvases dedicated to saints that are among the highlights of the work of the painter Juan Ricci.

Transept

Outside the cimborrium.

Cruise ferry (s. xvi).

Cid and Doña Jimena Tomb.

• Cimborrio

Around 1460-1470, commissioned by Bishop Acuña, Juan de Colonia built a dome in the transept that took the form of a third and sumptuous cathedral tower. The daring structure of this dome - which according to the descriptions of the time was very tall and elegant, was adorned by many columns and appeared crowned with eight spires - was surely the cause of its resounding collapse on the night of March 3-4, 1539. The work collapsed when its pillars on the north side gave way and dragged several vaults with it. The accident took place at dawn and caused no casualties.

That same day, the council decided to rebuild the dome and entrusted it to Juan de Vallejo. Designed by a disciple of Felipe Bigarny named Juan de Langres, Vallejo presented a high structure with an octagonal prism divided into two bodies. Four attached towers topped by slender needles reinforce the visual impact of the central drum. On each of its eight sides there are two large subdued windows that allow intense lighting inside. The Plateresque Renaissance style is combined with the final Gothic, which is manifested in its meticulous decorative program and in the verticality caused by its numerous pinnacles and spiers. The resulting profile is still basically gothic.

The interior is even more dazzling than the exterior. The imposing architectural volume rests on four enormous circular pillars, a solution imposed by Vallejo to prevent a repetition of the disaster of the year 1539. Four tubes allow the passage towards the octagonal plan of the two bodies. The eight sides of the lantern are studded with a dense Renaissance-inspired decoration, in which numerous sculptures, reliefs, noble shields and other decorative elements are intermingled from the hands of artists such as Juan Picard (or Picardo) and Pedro Andrés. The whole complex is topped off with a spectacular double-structured star-shaped vault in the shape of an eight-pointed star and which encloses a completely pierced filigree between its ribs. This surprising and daring architectural solution, in addition to lightening weight, allows the light from above to filter strongly and illuminate the sculptural work that is scattered around it. All the work was completed in 1568.

• Cruise

On the floor of the transept, just below the dome, has been the tomb of El Cid and Doña Jimena since 1921. His remains, from the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña, were buried under a simple marble slab with the corresponding inscription, in a solemn ceremony in which an epitaph written by Ramón Menéndez Pidal was read. It should be added that the transept space is flanked by two bars from the early 18th century century, forged according to the project of Fray Pedro Martínez, who also designed the pulpits.

Golden steps.

• Golden steps

The work was commissioned in 1519 by the cathedral chapter and Bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, who paid for it. The work of Diego de Siloé inspired by the Italian Renaissance, it is sculpted with great iconographic richness based on the engravings of Nicoletto Rosex da Morena, Agustino de Jusi, Fray Antonino de Onza, Galvanizo da Bresca and Agustino Veneciano. The gilded iron parapets (1523-1526) are by the French master Hilario. The staircase connected the door of the Coronería with the cathedral, saving with great originality a drop of almost eight meters. The architect Charles Garnier was inspired by her for the grand staircase of the Paris Opera.

Currently the door of the Coronería is permanently closed, and the staircase has lost its use for public transit. It is only used to install custody with the Blessed Sacrament in it during Holy Week (Thursday and Good Friday).

Swivel and Traverse

Relieves of the spine (s. xvi).

In the ambulatory is the tomb of Archdeacon Pedro Fernández de Villegas, the work of Simón de Colonia. The central reliefs of the trasaltar are by Felipe Bigarny and those at the ends by Pedro Alonso de los Ríos.

• Reliefs of the trasaltar

In 1498 the council entrusted the sculptor Felipe Bigarny with a stone relief for the trasaltar. Bigarny executed his Camino del Calvario in limestone. This is the first documented work of this artist in Burgos and it shows his style, highly indebted to expressiveness and Gothic aesthetics but open to Renaissance novelties, as evidenced in the decorative elements. After the success of the commission, the chapter entrusted him with two more reliefs: those of the Crucifixion and the Descent, Burial and Resurrection of Christ (1500-1503), both are currently Very damaged due to having been carved in poor quality stone that is pulverized with humidity. The architectural decorative framework of the reliefs is attributed to Simón de Colonia.

This set of sculptures was completed almost two centuries later with the addition at the ends of two new reliefs, dedicated to the Oración del Huerto and to the Ascension. They were executed by the sculptor Pedro Alonso de los Ríos between 1681 and 1683, also in limestone, and in the Baroque style.

Exterior of the large Condestable Chapel.

Chapel of the Constable

Built over the central chapel of the ambulatory, it replaces the primitive Gothic chapel dedicated to Saint Peter. The new great chapel was commissioned by the Constables of Castilla Pedro Fernández de Velasco and Mencía de Mendoza y Figueroa to serve as a family vault and although its popular name is the Chapel of the Constable (or of the Constables), its exact name is Chapel of the Purification of the Virgin, to which she was consecrated.

• Architecture of the chapel

The architecture is due to Simón de Colonia, who began the works in 1482. It is a large construction that shows late Gothic and the transition from Gothic to early Renaissance art: Colonia adapted the irregular site of the chapel to build a single space covered with a star-shaped, octagonal vault, with its central area -around the main keystone- pierced, in such a way that light enters from above. The architectural work is completed with the adjacent sacristy, added in 1517 by Francisco de Colonia.

• Retablos

The main altarpiece is the work of Diego de Siloé and Felipe Bigarny and was made between 1523 and 1526. Its architecture is very original: the main subject (the Purification of the Virgin) occupies the entire first body, conceived as if it were a stage (this is how the historian Martín González described it), with life-size sculptures in which the difference in style between Bigarny and Siloé (the latter more delicate and sweet than the Burgundian) can be appreciated. The polychromy of the altarpiece was in charge of León Picardo.

Sepulcher of the accountants Pedro Fernández de Velasco and Mencía de Mendoza.

On the right side front is the altarpiece of Santa Ana, a work mostly made by Gil de Siloé and finished by his son Diego with polychromy by León Picardo. It consists of three bodies ending in a high canopy in imitation of one of the cathedral's needles. Presided over by an image of "triple Santa Ana" it brings together a series of images of saints with the exception of a "dead Christ" supported by two mourning angels, the work of Diego de Siloé.

Symmetrical to this is a Renaissance altarpiece dedicated to Saint Peter, the work of Felipe Bigarny and Diego de Siloé with polychromy by León Picardo.

• Sepulchers

In the chapel there are several Gothic tombs that belonged to the primitive chapel of San Pedro and that the constables respected when building theirs. Both are at the entrance, in arcosolios, and correspond to the bishops Pedro Rodríguez de Quexada and Domingo de Arroyuelo. The recumbent statues of the founding constables are in the center of the chapel. Carved in Carrara marble, historians dispute the authorship (they are attributed to Bigarny, Alonso Berruguete or Juan de Lugano).

• Painting

Among the jewels belonging to the chapel are the painting of the Magdalene by Giovan Pietro Rizzoli, Giampietrino, a disciple of Leonardo da Vinci, and a Crucified Christ by Matthew cherry.

• Reja

The entrance gate to the chapel is considered the masterpiece of Cristóbal de Andino.

Cloister

• High cloister door

High cloister door.

This is an interior portal, usually closed, that connects the cloister with the southern arm of the transept. Dated at the end of the xiii century, attributed to the master Juan Pérez, associated with the Franco-Champagne school.

The tympanum represents the scene of the Baptism of Christ; in the two archivolts the genealogy of Christ is represented, the tree of Jesse and fourteen figures of prophets; the exterior chambrana is decorated with vegetables and is supported by corbels with two heads. Local tradition identifies one of these two heads with Saint Francis of Assisi who had visited Burgos making foundations.

In the jambs there are sculptures related to the coming of Jesus; to the left is the group of the Annunciation with a smiling angel, a sculpture related to those on the eastern façade of Reims; on the right two prophets, Isaiah and David, who announce the earthly arrival of Jesus.

On the jambs and lintel the heraldic decoration with castles and lions is repeated, with reiteration typical of the Mudejar style, a consequence of the medieval association of Christ with the monarchy.

The wooden leaves of the door date from the end of the 15th century, sponsored by Bishop Luis Acuña (1457-1495), whose coat of arms appears, and the work of Gil de Siloé, who worked for said prelate. Of Gothic tracery with scenes of the Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and his Descent into Limbo.

• High clause

From the anti-sacristy, through a door located in the south wall, you can access the upper cloister. The cloister of this cathedral, the “new cloister”, is a work from the end of the xiii century, with a somewhat irregular rectangular plan, with six arches on the sides eastern and western, and seven on the north and south sides, and it has had a double floor since its inception, due to the need to bridge the steep existing gap between the floor of the temple and Calle de la Paloma. The sobrecloister, or upper cloister, the work of maestro Enrique, is for Vicente Lampérez, a "signature example of Gothic art", just like the cloister of the cathedral of Pamplona; Its galleries are covered with ogival vaults with simple, quadripartite ribs, and its large windows, with a pointed arch, have a triple mullion and tracery of three quadrilobed oculi.

General aspect of the cloister.

The vegetal ornamentation of its arches, of its capitals and of the archivolts of the blind arches of its walls is precious, and above all, the ornate decoration of its four angular pillars, on which so many sculptural groups rest that they represent the Annunciation, the Epiphany and two groups of characters related to the construction of the cathedral, and the blind arches of the north gallery in which statues with characters or scenes from the Old Testament appear, such as the Sacrifice of Isaac; of Apostles, such as San Pedro, San Pablo and Santiago pilgrim, and of characters related to the construction of the cathedral, such as Bishop Mauricio and Fernando III el Santo, who appears offering the ring to Beatriz de Suavia. Under the blind pointed arches of the side walls of the other three galleries there are numerous tombs from the 12th to xvi, most of them Gothic and Renaissance, belonging to canons of the cathedral. Among these tombs, the Romanesque ones of the noble Doña Godo, mother of Alfonso VIII's butler, who died in 1105, stand out for their historical or artistic value; the Gothic of Bishop Mateo Rynal, who died in 1259; the Gothic style of Canon Juan López del Hospital, from the 15th century, and the Renaissance style of Canon Diego de Santander, from the xvi and carved by Diego de Siloé, and the Renaissance by canon Gaspar de Illescas, work of the mid-century xvi, attributed to Juan de Lizarazu, marked out by two corinthian columns and composed, in the upper body, of two medallions with the effigies of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, a relief with the scene of the Birth of Christ and four niches with the statues of the Fathers of the Western Church and, at the bottom, the tomb itself, with a recumbent statue on the top and shields on the front, all decorated with grotesques and rosettes.

In the northwest corner of the galleries, between the first arch of the north gallery and the first of the western gallery, is the Gothic chapel of San Jerónimo, or Mena, built by Juan de Vallejo in 1545, with square floor plan covered with a star-shaped ribbed vault, at the behest of Canon Francisco de Mena, who died in 1553 and whose Renaissance tomb, with a recumbent statue and a precious polychrome relief representing the Descent of the Holy Spirit, is attached to the right wall; The room is presided over by a good Mannerist altarpiece, attributed to Diego Guillén, influenced by the carvings of the main altarpiece of the cathedral, and consisting of three bodies and five streets, occupying the central street, crowned by the figure of the Eternal Father, the sculptural group of the Burial of Christ and the carvings of the penitent Saint Jerome and of Christ tied to the column.

• Closing low

The lower cloister, which for centuries served as a cemetery, was built about ten years before the upper cloister and, despite having been lowered, is considerably less slender; It was restored, according to many almost reinvented, by Vicente Lampérez, between 1899 and 1911, who, following Viollet-le-Duc's "purist" criteria, lowered the floors, replaced the tracery in its arcades, except in those of the gallery south that served as a public passageway parallel to La Paloma street; he also placed angels next to the pillars and multicolored mosaic stained glass windows, made by Juan B. Lázaro and Clemente J. Bolinga, in the arcades of both floors. Currently, this ground floor houses an interpretation center for the construction of the cathedral and, in its galleries and in the chapel-crypt of San Pedro, which is considered to have belonged to the missing Romanesque cathedral and which is accessed from the north gallery, They exhibit archaeological and sculptural remains belonging to said Romanesque cathedral, or discarded in the successive restorations of the Gothic, models of the Romanesque cathedral and information panels on the construction and restoration processes of the Gothic cathedral.

Chapel of Santa Tecla

Santa Tecla Chapel.

Located at the foot of the cathedral, it is the first of those attached to the Gospel or northern nave (left side) and it is also the most spacious of the set of chapels, since it occupies four floor sections. Its complete dedication is to Santa Tecla and Santiago. Built in the third decade of the 18th century according to a project by Andrés Collado and Francisco de Basteguieta, it is all in the Baroque style. Inside, the vaulting stands out, based on polychrome plasterwork, and the monumental main altarpiece, in Churrigueresque style and whose main body contains scenes of the martyrdom of the holy object of dedication. Regular worship is celebrated in this chapel, sharing the service program with the Main Chapel.

Chapel of Santa Ana or of the Conception

Santa Ana Chapel.

It is located between the Chapel of Santa Tecla and the northern arm of the transept, occupying two sections parallel to the nave of the Gospel. Built between 1477 and 1488 in the late Gothic style of the time by Juan de Colonia and his son Simón, it treasures works of great artistic value: the extraordinary main altarpiece, dedicated to the iconographic theme of the Tree of Jesse and the genealogy of the Virgin, and whose main element is the embrace of San Joaquín and Santa Ana, carried out with his characteristic virtuosity by the Spanish-Flemish Gil de Siloé between the years 1486 and 1492; the tomb of Bishop Luis de Acuña, carved in alabaster and in Renaissance style by the son of the former, Diego de Siloé, in 1519; the tomb of Archdeacon Fernando Díaz de Fuentepelayo, flamboyant Gothic and attributed to Gil de Siloé; and the altarpiece of Santa Ana, Renaissance-Plateresque. The space is covered with star vaults and is entered through a Gothic grill by Luis de Paredes.

Chapel of Saint Nicholas

Romanesque altarpiece of the chapel of St. Nicholas.

On the eastern wall of the first section of the north arm of the transept, under the corresponding clerestory arch, opens the access arch to the small Gothic chapel of San Nicolás, parallel to the first section of the north arm of the ambulatory and which It is the oldest in the cathedral, since it was founded in the first third of the 13th century by Pedro Díaz de Villahoz, bishop of the cathedral who died in the year 1230; it is covered with a simple, octopartite ribbed vault; it is illuminated by two elongated pointed windows, without mullion or tracery; Its architecture is influenced by the late Cistercian Romanesque, reminiscent of the apsidal chapels of the temple of the monastery of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas, and contains the Gothic tomb of the founder and a small Romanesque altarpiece, from the xiii, which was brought, in the twenties of the xx century, from the Benedictine expriory of Santa Maria de Mave (Palencia). This altarpiece, carved in wood and polychrome, is made up of two pieces; the lower one, which is believed to have been made between 1235 and 1260, is rectangular and could have served as a front, presenting a central box containing a mandorla to which a Pantokrator was attached, now disappeared, and which is surrounded by the Tetramorphs, the the lion of San Marcos is missing, and two lateral boxes in which, under two superimposed series of six arches, three on each side, there is an Apostleship, of which four of the Apostles are missing and in which only Saint Peter and Saint Peter are identifiable. San Juan; On each series of arches there is decoration of small frames and, in the frame, decoration of rosettes and a cord border which, also taking into account other observable differences between the two pieces of the altarpiece, suggests that both were independent. The upper piece, which is supposed to have been made between 1280 and 1300, is pentagonal in shape and is organized into three bodies, divided into two streets, the two lower ones by a trefoil arch that served as a frame for the Romanesque image of the Virgin that still stands. preserved in the temple of Santa María de Mave; In the two streets of the lower body, sheltered in trefoil arches, three in each street, were, on the left, the figures of the three Wise Men, of which only one kneeling remains, and on the right, those of Saint Joseph, the angel of the Annunciation and the Virgin, of which only the angel remains; In the intermediate body, also under trefoil arches but in horizontal spaces, the scenes of the Visitation, the Birth, the Flight into Egypt and another unidentifiable one appeared, of which only the scene of the Birth is preserved, with the Virgin in bed and the Child on it, as it appears carved in some late Romanesque capitals, as in the well-known capital of San Juan de Ortega; The upper body is made up of three empty frames, the two lateral triangular and the central pentagonal. Both pieces only retain some remains of their polychromy.

Chapel of the Nativity

Nativity Chapel altarpiece.

The current chapel dates from the 16th century and stands on the space occupied by two old Gothic chapels of the xiii, which were unified under a single Renaissance oval vault built by the architects Domingo de Bérriz and Martín de la Haya. This new chapel was founded as a funeral chapel by Ana de Espinosa, widow of Pedro González de Salamanca, who had become rich in Peru.

• Biggest altarpiece

It is the work of Martín de la Haya and Domingo de Bérriz. It was built between 1580 and 1585. It consists of a large stone arch with abundant sculptural decoration that frames the wooden work, which follows the same Romanesque style as the La Haya brothers in the main altarpiece of the cathedral, carved a few years before. It was polychromed by the gilder Juan de Cea.

• Sillera

The chairs in the chapel were also carved by Martín de la Haya. It is Renaissance in style and of high quality.

• Triptych

In 2022, a triptych was attributed to the Flemish painter Jan Sanders van Hemessen. The central panel represents Christ with the cross and is a version of a painting by Sebastiano del Piombo that Van Hemessen was able to meet in Italy. The sides represent Santiago Apóstol (a recurring theme in paintings intended for Spanish clients) and the merchant in charge of the painting, Pedro González de Espinosa, who in a later repainting was transformed into a Saint Peter.

Chapel of the Annunciation

The chapel of the Annunciation, or of San Antonio Abad, with a hexagonal plan, is one of the primitive chapels of the 13th century, it is already documented in the time of Bishop García Gudiel (1276-1280), it was covered with a simple ribbed vault with six ribs, it was used as a burial place for some members of the chapter and some bishops and, in the first half of the century, xvi, was ceded to the canon Juan Martínez de San Quirce who, in 1541, commissioned the Mannerist altarpiece that presides over it today and was made by the sculptor Juan de Lizarazu and by the painter and gilder Lazarus of Azcoitia.

Its restoration was completed in 2012.

Chapel of Saint Gregory

Called San Juan until the end of the 15th century, it has a flattened pentagon plan and is the last of the northern turn of the ambulatory, paired with the Constable's Chapel. It contains a Baroque altarpiece with three bodies and three sections dedicated to the Virgin, as well as a canvas, the Martyrdom of Saint Peter, attributed to Mateo Cerezo, who was inspired by an original by Guido Reni. However, the most valuable objects are two Gothic tombs from the 14th century century belonging to the bishops Gonzalo de Hinojosa (died in 1327) and D. Lope de Fontecha (1351), who are represented with recumbent bundles in arcosolio. These ecclesiastical tombs show a rich iconography that is very informative about the customs and funeral rites of the time. Currently (2008) this chapel is closed to visitors for rehabilitation work.

Furniture and plasterwork of the Greater Sacristy.

Main Sacristy

Sandwiched between the southern side of the ambulatory, the Chapel of San Juan Bautista and Santiago, the northern gallery of the lower cloister and the Chapel of San Enrique is the Main Sacristy of the Cathedral, which is entered through a vestibule or ante-sacristy from the nave. It is an almost circular space built between 1762 and 1765 in the Baroque Rococo style following the plans of Jerónimo Fray Antonio de San José Pontones. The architecture with an elliptical dome with six segments and a lantern, as well as the motley decoration with plasterwork, dedicated to the theme of the Coronation of the Virgin as Queen of Heaven, are due to the Carmelite master Fray José de San Juan de the cross. The polychromy is later, from the year 1870. The lavish furniture, made up of drawers, altarpieces without gilding, carvings and paintings, is also an exponent of the Baroque end of the xviii. Rococo on all four sides, this sacristy was harshly criticized by the neoclassical academic Antonio Ponz. Furthermore this furniture is adorned with small paintings by Luca Giordano.

Chapel of Saint Henry

After the cloister door, there is the access to the chapel of San Enrique, or Ecce Homo, attached and parallel to the first two sections of the southern arm of the ambulatory and which is the result of a reform carried out by the teachers Juan de la Sierra Bocerraiz and Bernabé de Hazas, in 1674, at the request of Archbishop Enrique Peralta y Cárdenas, and who converted the old chapels of Santo Tomás de Canterbury, or Ecce Homo, and Magdalena into a single chapel and San Andres. The room is covered with two domes, hemispherical at the head and octagonal at the foot. It contains on the front a baroque altarpiece with the carving of St. Henry, Germanic emperor of the xi century, patron saint of the patron prelate, and presided over by a beautiful carving of the Ecce Homo, an anonymous work carried out in Antwerp around the year 1500; This image was already in the chapel before the reform and was highly venerated by the people of Burgos, especially in times of great calamities. There is also another baroque altarpiece in this chapel, containing the carvings of San Andrés and Santa María Magdalena; the tomb of Archbishop Enrique Peralta, with a praying bronze statue; the tombs of the canons Juan García de Medina de Pomar, from the middle of the xv century, and Juan Fernández de Abaunza, from the middle of the xvi; two tombstones, corresponding to two bishops of Oca, and a free-standing “positive” organ, from the 18th century.

Gothic tombs under arcsolio in the Chapel of Visitation.

Chapel of the Visitation

Opposite the door of the upper cloister, on the western wall of the arm of the transept opens the access arch to the Chapel of the Visitation, closed with a Gothic grille from the end of the century xv, a work attributed to the master Bujil, and constitutes the oldest grate in the cathedral. The chapel has two sections, the first covered with a four-pointed star ribbed vault, was made, between the years 1440 and 1442, by Juan de Colonia, commissioned by Bishop Alonso de Cartagena, son of his predecessor Pablo de Santa María. The Gothic tomb of the bishop is in the center of the room, with a stone burial mound, probably made by Juan de Colonia, and a recumbent alabaster statue, probably carved by Gil de Siloé with exquisite flowery Gothic ornamentation that is clearly manifested in the clothing and that recalls that of the tombs of King Juan II and his wife in the Miraflores charterhouse. On the ground, next to the access gate, is buried the humanist from Cuenca, Juan Maldonado, chaplain of this cathedral who died in 1554; Also buried on the ground are the German architect Juan de Colonia, who died in 1481, and his wife María Fernández; On the side walls there are Gothic arches, with the tombs of relatives of the prelate, and some paintings hang, including one by Carlos Luis Ribera, from 1890, which represents the Catholic Monarchs before Granada, before the conquest, and in the one in which the characters show a great expressiveness that is also visible in their hands; The front wall is presided over by a good classicist Baroque altarpiece that, in 1653, replaced a Gothic one and which contains paintings inspired by the Italian Renaissance and referring to Saint John the Evangelist and the life of the Virgin, occupying the central street, one representing the Visitation and another in which the Virgin and Child appear.

Retablo rococó de la Capilla de San Juan de Sahagún.

Chapel of San Juan de Sahagún

Adjacent to the southern arm of the transept and of reduced proportions, it has received this name since 1765, when it was dedicated to the Augustinian saint who had been a canon of the Burgos cathedral. Previously, the space was called Capilla Santa Catalina and Capilla de los Rojas, in memory of the founding family, whose shields decorate the two vaults on the roof, one with a simple ribbed vault and the other with a ribbed vault made up of tiercerons. The altarpiece, in a rococo and golden style, was made in 1765 by Fernando González de Lara following the plans of José Cortés. In the central part of it was placed the image of the titular saint of the chapel, the work of Juan Pascual de Mena (1770), and in the attic, the relief of the Vision of Saint Peter in Jaffa, by Manuel Romero Puelles. For a long time this chapel housed a neo-Gothic confessional that was used by the penitentiary canon for confessions to the faithful. From here also starts a narrow spiral staircase that goes up to the clerestory.

Chapel of Relics

It is accessed through the Chapel of San Juan de Sahagún and occupies the fifth section of the floor on the Epistle side. It was designed by the Carmelite architect Fray José de San Juan de la Cruz and built between 1761 and 1763 by Fernando González de Lara in the Rococo style, with plasterwork of San Juan de Sahagún, San Telmo, San Julián, San Indalecio, Virtudes and allegories. The three altarpieces-reliquaries inside, also designed by Fray José, house, in chests and teak busts, the collection of relics of the cathedral, corresponding to saints and saints from before the xviii, and replace the old cabinet-reliquary painted by Alonso de Sedano and the Master of the Balbases, which is currently exhibited in the Cathedral Museum. This small but motley chapel also contained two beautiful Gothic carvings, the Virgen de la Oca, from the 13th century, and the Virgin of the Miracle, from the 14th century, both of which are now exhibited in the cloistered chapel-museum of Santa Catalina.

Starry vault of the Presentation Chapel.

Chapel of the Presentation

Main article: Chapel of the Presentation of the Cathedral of Burgos

La Sagrada FamiliaBig painting on Sebastiano del Piombo board.

The Chapel of the Presentation and Consolation, also called San José or the Lerma Polanco family, was built between 1519 and 1524 at the initiative of Canon Gonzalo Díaz de Lerma Polanco to serve as a funeral chapel as well as to that of his brother Alonso de Lerma Polanco and his nephew Juan de Lerma Polanco, one of the patrons of the chapel. The architecture, in the late Gothic style, is due to Juan de Matienzo, who was inspired by the Chapel of the Constable to build a central plan with an openwork star-shaped vault. It has several Gothic-Renaissance tombs, among which the one of the founder, Gonzalo de Lerma, whose funeral bundle was sculpted by Felipe Bigarny with great realism, stands out. The main neoclassical altarpiece stands out for the painting of the Holy Family by Sebastiano del Piombo, brought from Italy by the canon himself, a pictorial work of great value. A Renaissance grill by Cristóbal de Andino separates the space from the nave.

Chapel of the Holy Christ of Burgos

In the shape of a long Latin cross and the first of those attached to the Epistle nave, it occupies one of the pandas of the primitive cloister, of which it preserves Gothic arches. The interior of the entrance contains a Gothic portal from the second half of the 13th century century, in whose tympanum there is a seated sculpture of the Virgin with Child.

The Most Holy Christ of Burgos.

The image of the Santísimo Cristo de Burgos is exhibited at the head, which until the Confiscation of 1835 was the property of the Royal Monastery of San Agustín, located outside the city walls. It is a miraculous image, highly venerated since ancient times, since Burgos merchants founded chapels dedicated to it in Bruges and Antwerp, and the Augustinians spread their devotion throughout Spain and Latin America: there was practically no cathedral that did not have a chapel dedicated to him, and his cult multiplied with engravings and plates, popularizing his iconography of long hair, bloody body and, above all, skirts that almost completely cover his legs.

The image dates from the 14th century and is highly realistic, as it is articulated, has human hair and beard, and the body is made of wood lined with cowhide that simulates human skin. Numerous travelers, historians and writers have described this Christ and have reflected the enormous devotion and emotion that it aroused, among others, Andrea Navagero, Santa Teresa de Jesús, Agustín Moreto, Enrique Flórez, Jean-Paul Sartre or Rafael Alberti.

A legend attributes the authorship to Nicodemus, who would have modeled it on the body of Jesus when he lowered it from the Cross. Another legend, written by León de Rosmithal de Blatna between 1465 and 1467, says that the Christ had been found 500 years ago, when some Burgos sailors found an empty galleon where there was only a box with that Christ and some tables that said that regardless of the coast to which it arrived, they put the image in a decent place. In this way, they took the image and took it to Burgos.

This Crucified must have been made in Flanders or in northern Germany, and it bears a great stylistic resemblance to another famous Christ, this reclining one, the Holy Christ from the monastery of Las Claras in Palencia. According to another legend, the Christ of Palencia was found floating in the sea by a lookout of the fleet of Alfonso Enríquez, admiral of Castile, between the years 1407 and 1410.

The current altarpiece, in neo-Gothic style, was designed by Vicente Lampérez. In the chapel there are also numerous tombs, some from the old cloister of the 13th century and other modern ones, from the xix, like that of Canon Barrantes, also the work of Lampérez. On one side of the presbytery there is a stone sculpture of the Virgin and Child dating from the xiv century. This devotional chapel, like that of Santa Tecla which is located right in front, on the Gospel side, in its case consecrated to the regular service, is separated from the tourist circuit of the Cathedral and remains open continuously to the faithful, who access pray in it for the western portal of Santa María.

Claustral chapels and Cathedral Museum

In the northwest corner of the galleries of the upper cloister, between the first arch of the north gallery and the first of the western gallery, is the Gothic chapel of San Jerónimo, or Mena, built by Juan de Vallejo, in 1545, with a square floor plan covered with a star-shaped ribbed vault, at the behest of Canon Francisco de Mena, who died in 1553 and whose Renaissance tomb, with a recumbent statue and a precious polychrome relief representing the Descent of the Holy Spirit, is attached to the right wall.; The room is presided over by a good Mannerist altarpiece, attributed to Diego Guillén, influenced by the carvings of the main altarpiece of the cathedral, and consisting of three bodies and five streets, occupying the central street, crowned by the figure of the Eternal Father, the sculptural group of the Burial of Christ and the carvings of the penitent Saint Jerome and of Christ tied to the column.

Corpus Christi Chapel

The Cid chestIn the Corpus Christi Chapel.

In the southern part of the eastern gallery of the upper cloister, the doorway of the Corpus Christi chapel opens, a Gothic doorway with a pointed arch whose tympanum is decorated with a relief in which a Deesis appears, a Christ the Judge surrounded by four angels carrying the symbols of the Passion and accompanied by the Virgin and Saint John, while on the lintel appear the patrons of the chapel, the nobleman Juan Estébanez Castellanos and his wife, kneeling on either side of his shield. The chapel was built around the year 1373, it is covered with two sections of simple ribbed vaults, octopartite, and contains the tomb of a son of the founder, Garcí Fernández de Castellanos, who died in 1375 and whose recumbent statue barely protrudes from the pavement; the access staircase to the Archive, attached to the south wall and made by Martín de la Haya in 1596; the tombs of Garcí Fernández Manrique, first count of Castañeda (Cantabria), who died in 1439, and his wife Aldonza Téllez de la Vega, in separate arcosolios, under the mentioned staircase; the tomb of Miguel Esteban de Huerto, who died in 1283, and his wife Ucenda, who died in 1296, located at the landing of the aforementioned staircase, under an angular ogee arch; the so-called Cofre del Cid, a medieval chest that according to tradition was used by the Castilian hero to deceive the Jews of Burgos, but which was intended to keep the documents of the town council and which hangs on the left wall of the stay between two shields of Castile, and finally, two large songs from the 16th century and some later paintings and carvings.

Cathedral Archive

The Archive is located above the Corpus Christi chapel and the adjoining modern chapter house. It houses a very important documentation that spans from the x century to the xix century and in the one that highlights the founding document of the abbey and the Infantado de Covarrubias, from 978; a privilege of Sancho II of Castilla, from the year 1068, by which the diocese of Oca is restored; the letter of deposit of the Cid, of the year 1074; a privilege of Alfonso VI, from the year 1075, by which the seat of the diocese of Oca was transferred to Burgos; a document from the council of Husillos, from the year 1088, which sets the limits of the dioceses of Burgos and Burgo de Osma; a bull from Pope Urban II, from the year 1095, confirming the transfer to Burgos of the headquarters of Oca; a privilege of Alfonso VIII, from the year 1162, regulating the harvest tasks, and a privilege from Fernando III, from the year 1221, compensating Bishop Mauricio for his trip to Germany to arrange the wedding of the monarch with Beatriz de Suavia. The Archive also houses valuable codices, such as the Bible of Cardeña (circa 910-914), the Hommiliary of Paulo Deacono and the Colletiones of the abbot Smaragdo (12th century), the Moralis Tractatus of William of Perault (xiii), the Miniada Bible (late xiii-early xiv, with marginal notes attributed to Pablo de Santa María) and the Rule of Our Lady of Creation (1494). Likewise, the archive holds more than a dozen incunabula, a Polyglot Bible from Alcalá (circa 1514-1517), several prince editions and 253 editions of Don Quixote.

Chapter House

On the southern wall of the Corpus Christi chapel, under the Archive staircase, opens the access door to the chapter house, formerly the chapter's library; It was built by Martín de la Haya in 1596, and is covered with a coffered ceiling of arabesque tracery, with hanging golden rosettes, surrounded by a frieze of painted plasterwork in which Biblical texts are developed; It contains some models of the Gothic cathedral and valuable and precious triptychs hang from its walls, such as the Adoration of the Magi, from around 1495 and painted by Diego de la Cruz, which represents the Epiphany, in the center, and the Virgin and a gentleman, on the sides; that of the Virgin and Child of the Beautiful Country, the work of a painter known as the “Master of Embroidered Foliage”, also from the end of the xv; that of the "Crucifixion", from around the year 1512, attributed to Goswijn van del Weiden; that of the "Descent", from the year 1525, painted by Jan de Beer, with the scenes of Calvary, the Deposition and the Resurrection, and that of the "Virgin and Child by Pereda", from around the year 1535, painted by the called "Master of the legend of the Magdalena".

Chapel of Saint Catherine

Returning to the eastern gallery of the cloister, we find the chapel of Santa Catalina, built in 1316 by Bishop Gonzalo de Hinojosa and which was the chapter house until 1586; its ogival doorway has a polychrome relief on its tympanum representing the Descent and, on the lintel and jambs, decorations of castles and lions; it is covered with an eight-pointed star vault whose nerves start from fasciculated pillars topped with polychrome capitals depicting hunting scenes and courtesans; the flooring and drawers are already Baroque work, from the first third of the 18th century and by the Benedictine monk Fray Pedro Martínez, at the request of Archbishop Manuel de Navarrete; the walls are almost completely covered with the portraits of the bishops and archbishops of Burgos, from the time when the seat was in Oca to the present day, most of these portraits being "invented", up to 112, the work of Nicolás from Biscay Antonio de la Cuadra, painted between 1712 and 1714 commissioned by Bishop Navarrete and to replace with them a previous series in which Diego de Leiva and Mateo Cerezo el Viejo had collaborated. Some of the portraits after those dates are also the work of painters of a certain prestige, Carlos Luis Ribera; Some valuable carvings are exhibited in this chapel, such as the Gothic one of the Virgin of Oca, which in the 14th century replaced the main image of the primitive diocese, and some of the most valuable documents and codices in the Archive, such as the founding document of the Infantado de Covarrubias, the deposit letter of El Cid and the Cardeña Bible.

Chapel of San Juan Bautista and Santiago. The treasure

Chapel of Saint John the Baptist and James.

At the end of the cloister gallery is the access to the largest of the cloister chapels and one of the largest in the cathedral, the result of the incorporation carried out by Juan de Vallejo, in the first third of the century 16th century, from the cloistered chapel of San Juan Bautista, a work of the 15th century covered with a four-pointed star-shaped ribbed vault, the apsidal chapel of Santiago, already mentioned in the xiv century and extensively reformed by Juan de Vallejo that covered it with vaults of complex star-ribbed ribs with beautiful nerves and elegant decorated keystones.

The tombs of Bishop Juan Cabeza de Vaca, who died in 1413, and that of his brother Pedro Fernández Cabeza de Vaca, are found in the old chapel of San Juan Bautista, converted into a sacristy, choir and anteroom to that of Santiago. master of the order of Santiago who died of plague in the siege of Lisbon in 1384. The large chapel of Santiago, which has been used as a parish church in recent centuries, is today the Treasury room and the main room of the Cathedral Museum. On the left wall of the room is the Renaissance tomb of one of the founders and patrons of the chapel in the 16th century, Don Juan Ortega de Velasco, abbot of San Quirce de los Ausines and canon and protonotary of the cathedral, who died in 1557; It is one of the best tombs in the cathedral, with caryatid columns on both sides of the arch; with angels, and the spandrels of the same; with a pediment crowned by a Calvary and presided over by the scene of the Assumption of the Virgin, between the medallions of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; with a medallion with the scene of the Baptism of Christ, at the bottom of the arch, and with the figure of the deceased and a cartouche supported by children, in the sepulcher itself; the set was made in 1546, with the intervention of Juan de Vallejo and the collaboration of other sculptors. In front of this tomb, on the front wall, there are two other tombs in which a polychrome relief of the Eucharist stands out; One of the tombs corresponds to the magnate Lesmes de Astudillo, patron of this chapel and the chapel-tomb of the Magi in the Cathedral of Cologne, and the magnate's wife, Mencía de Paredes, who died in 1541 and 1559, respectively. and the other to Andrés de Astudillo, canon and bishop of the Burgos town hall.

The altarpiece of the chapel, gilt and polychrome, is from the 16th century, is presided over by a Santiago Matamoros and contains a Marian theme, in the center, and the carvings of San Juan Evangelista and Santa María Salomé, in the side streets; In the steps, on the ground, is the tomb of Bishop Juan de Villacreces, who died in 1403, and next to the altarpiece, on the right side, the magnificent carving of Christ tied to the column, the work of Diego de Siloé, prior to the year 1528. Scattered around the room are important works of art, such as some tapestries from the 15th and xvi, among which stands out one that develops the theme of Temperance; nine Gothic panels, from the end of the 15th century, belonging to the old cabinet of the Relics and of which seven were painted by Alonso de Sedano and two by the master of the Balbases; ivory and goldsmith crosses from different eras and styles, among which one stands out, chiselled and embossed by Juan de Horna, in 1537, and restored and completed by Juan de Arfe; chalices and peace-holders from the 16th to the xix centuries; the liturgical trousseau of the chapel of the Constable (chalice, paten, cruets, sacred, peace-bearers..., from the 16th century; reliquaries in gilt silver, among one of which stands out is one from the 15th century; an ivory portable altar, from the end of the century XV, a gift from King Manuel I of Portugal to the Constable; a painting by Mateo Cerezo, from the xvii century, representing Saint Francis of Assisi; a neo-Gothic monstrance, made of ivory gold and precious stones, made by the Granda workshops in the xx century... We can find a small side altarpiece in the Church of San Lorenzo, which took this chapel as an example to a lesser extent.

Numismatics

In 2012, the Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre minted a two-euro coin on the back of which you could see the main façade and the dome of the cathedral. 100,000 units were put into circulation.

Literature

The cathedral of Burgos appears as the main setting for various works of fiction, such as El número de Dios by José Luis Corral (about the secret plans of the stonemasons who built the cathedral in the xiii), The thresholds of the temple by Francisco Javier Tabares (on Bishop Mauricio, promoter of the temple), Restlessness in Paradise by Óscar Esquivias or The Foreigner by Astrid Nilsen (Click Ediciones). It also appears in works by Benito Pérez Galdós, Victor Hugo, Alejandro Dumas, Bécquer, García Lorca, Toti Martínez de Lezea (El jardín de la Oca), María José Luis (El enigma del Cid ), Roberto Llorente (The Pool of Bethesda), José Enrique Gil-Delgado (And it happened in the time of the Cid) and Joaquín García Andrés ( Who killed the governor?).

In the novel The Kingdom of Loveless Men, Alfonso Mateo-Sagasta recreated the weddings between Philip IV of Spain and Isabel de Borbón and those of Louis XIII of France with Anne of Austria, which they celebrated simultaneously in the cathedral.

In 2021, the anniversary of the VIII Centenary of the foundation of the temple, the novel The Cathedral of the Kingdom (Ed. Atticus) by Fernando Liborio Soto Sáez was published, presented by the Archbishop of Burgos himself, Mario Iceta, together with the author. Unpublished stories by Jesús Carazo ("The Divine Providence") and Óscar Esquivias ("Dreamer's Guide") were also published, published in the Diario de Burgos of the same day July 20, the date on which the first stone of the temple was laid in 1221.