Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar of Zaragoza
The Cathedral-Basilica of Nuestra Señora del Pilar or Santo Templo Metropolitano de Nuestra Señora del Pilar is one of the two seos or metropolitan cathedrals of the Archdiocese of Zaragoza, along with Seo del Salvador, as well as a minor basilica. Usually it is called simply "Basilica del Pilar" or "El Pilar". It is an important baroque temple dedicated to Nuestra Señora del Pilar in the city of Zaragoza (Aragon, Spain).
According to tradition, it is the first Marian temple in 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, he would have appeared in mortal flesh to the Apostle Santiago on January 2, 40. There is no documentary evidence of what is recorded in the tradition, whose details date from 1297 —in a bull of Pope Boniface VIII— and 1299 —a declaration of the Juries of Zaragoza—, where for the first time the invocation of "Santa María del Pilar" is attested, after Bishop Hugo de Mataplana undertook in 1293 a rehabilitation of the building that threatened ruin, thanks to the donations promoted by the mentioned papal bull.
The documented history of the temple dates back to the IX century, when according to the History of the transfer of Saint Vincent of Aimoino, the existence of a Mozarabic church in Saraqusta dedicated to Santa Maria is attested, in the same place where the Baroque basilica is currently located. One of the city's Christian communities was articulated around this temple.
Architecturally, the basilica is divided into three naves, of equal height, covered with barrel vaults, in which cupolas and plate vaults are interspersed, resting on robust pillars. The exterior is 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 large main altarpiece of the Assumption, belonging to the previous church, made by the sculptor Damián Forment in the XVI. Under the other two elliptical domes of the central nave, the Holy Chapel of the Virgen del Pilar was arranged, along with the choir and organ, which also came from the predecessor Gothic church. They are currently 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, sharing since then 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 del Pilar, together with the sanctuaries of Torreciudad, Montserrat, Meritxell and Lourdes make up the Marian Route, an itinerary guided by Marian spirituality and devotion, possessing great heritage, gastronomic and natural wealth. It is also since 2007, one of the 12 Treasures of Spain.
History of the building
According to Christian legend, Mary would have appeared in Zaragoza "in mortal flesh" on a column —popularly called "El Pilar"— on January 2, 40. Based on this belief, religious tradition speaks of the presence of a chapel ordered to be built by the Virgin to house the column that she left in testimony of her coming, and which was built by Santiago el Mayor and the first seven converts from the city of the Ebro.
There is no archaeological or documentary evidence of this first chapel, but there is evidence of the existence of a church in Saraqusta, «mother of the churches of the city», dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin in the IX in the place where the Basilica currently stands, around which one of the Mozarabic communities of the city was articulated, according to the monk franc from the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés Aimoino.
After the conquest of Zaragoza by King Alfonso I of Aragon in 1118, the temple was in a dilapidated state, and Bishop Pedro de Librana had to prepare the church for Christian worship.
Some time later, the construction of a Romanesque church began in that same place, whose works were not completed until the 13th century. The old chapel of El Pilar dates from this period, located inside a room in a cloister attached to the main temple. The Pilar chapel is documented by Diego de Espés in 1240 and was an independent place of worship. A bull of Pope Bonifacio VIII from 1297 confirms that the pillar —or column— linked to the dedication of Santa María was already venerated, uniting both cults in that of Santa María del Pilar.
In 1293 the church was already very deteriorated and a little later the construction of a new Gothic-Mudejar building began, which lasted until 1515, and included the creation of the choir with its carved stalls and the altarpiece of the main altar, entrusted to Damián Forment.
An idea of the state of this temple is given by a sketch of the plan found in the Pilar Archive, a view by Antonio van den Wyngaerde from 1563 and the View of Zaragoza by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo from 1647, as well as a notarial description of the building deed drawn up on October 2, 1668. The old chapel remained standing until the reform of the temple in the 16th century XVIII.
The baroque temple
In 1670 Juan José de Austria, then Viceroy of Aragón, promoted the construction of a new Baroque-style temple, which is the one that basically 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. Finally, in 1765, the reform was completed with the contributions of Ventura Rodríguez, who in 1750 had projected a new chapel of the Virgin on the initiative of Fernando VI that 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 change the location of the Renaissance altarpiece and the choir, creating a vast central nave, which would have the great marble high relief that decorates the wall of the trasaltar of the Santa Capilla by Carlos Salas Viraseca as its altar. In the end, it was not carried out, but it did modify the decorative concept of the interior of the temple, significantly simplifying the decoration of the capitals and the flames of the columns, giving it a more sober appearance and in keeping 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, which were erected for the most part between 1796 and 1872, the year in which it was considered finished the temple. However, the angular towers that enhance the exterior volume date for the most part from the XX century, and were not completed until 1961.
- Historical images
Mudejar Church of the Pilar in 1647, according to detail of the View of Zaragoza of Martínez del Mazo
Basilica of the Pilar in 1806. Recorded by Robert Daudet from a drawing by Louis François Léjeune.
The Pilar in 1883 (Adriano Lombardo)
The Pilar in 1912 (the towers had not yet reached the final height) (FigureNo. 14 of 31 January 1912)
Exterior of the basilica
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 at its angles. It currently has eleven domes covered with glazed tiles in green, yellow, blue and white. One central, at the confluence between the central nave and section of the church —consisting of three naves and seven sections—; two smaller ones located on both sides, in the second and sixth sections, over the Holy Chapel and the Main Choir; and four smaller ones surrounding these two median domes at the corners, on the first, third, fifth and seventh sections of both side naves. In addition, between the buttresses are closed chapels topped with lanterns. The towers, built for the most part in the XX century thanks to a project carried out by the architect Miguel Ángel Navarro Pérez, reach ninety-eight meters high.
In 1944 a popular charity was convened to reform the south façade, facing the square. The Teodoro Ríos project was carried out between 1945 and 1950 and consisted of framing the two main entrances at the ends of the temple with porticoes with triangular pediments on Corinthian columns. Likewise, attached pilasters were added that broke the monotony of the wall to create a series of sections, while another portico formed by a niche with a sculpture of the was located in the center, coinciding with the main dome. Coming of the Virgin by Pablo Serrano (1969) coinciding with the pinion of the nave of the transept or central section, flanked by double columns between which were niches with flamingos.
On the entire façade, he arranged a molded cornice with a large projection and topping off this attic, a round balustrade that incorporates statues of saints from the region due to Félix Burriel —San Vicente de Paul— and Antonio Torres Clavero —San Vicente, Santiago, Santa Isabel de Portugal, San Braulio, San Valero, Santa Engracia and San José de Calasanz.
The Romanesque tympanum was inserted into the wall closest to the door at the eastern end, the one closest to the Holy Chapel, the only remaining 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 dropped by the French during the two sieges that subdued the city of Zaragoza in 1808 and 1809
Interior of the basilica
- Basil plant.
The interior arrangement of the Basilica del Pilar is divided into three naves —the widest central one— and seven sections, which rest on thick pillars decorated with classicist attached pilasters. On them there are sober entablatures that support domes on pendentives and lowered vaults. On the walls there are side chapels covered with domes with lanterns or vaults. The intradoses of the semicircular arches, necks of vaults and domes were decorated in 1871 by the sculptor Manuel Miguel Gálvez with garlands and putti.
Following a clockwise route, from the so-called low door (the closest to the Virgin, at the eastern end of the south façade), is the chapel of Santa Ana and that of San José. Next, in the center of the south side nave, the main sacristy opens. Then the chapel of San Antonio and that of San Braulio until reaching the entrance of the high door. In the west section, in the retrochoir, there are four small chapels, on both sides of the choir, among which those of Ecce Homo (with a painting attributed to Roland de Mois or Pablo Scheppers) and that of Good Hope stand out. On the side at the foot of the cathedral there are two other chapels: del Rosario and San Agustín (also called the Pilar parish, where daily religious services are held) and between them is the chapter house.
On the north side and from the high north door, which overlooks the banks of the Ebro, there are three other chapels: San Pedro Arbués, San Lorenzo and San Joaquín and the sacristy of the Virgin, leaving the space in the center which occupies the Pilarista Museum. Finally, on the east side, in front of the Holy Chapel, is the Coreto de la Virgen and on both sides two chapels: to the north that of Santiago and to the south that of San Juan, already at the low entrance door on the side of the square mentioned at the beginning of this tour, which is the one that receives the greatest influx of public.
The Pilarista Museum keeps an endless number of liturgical gold and silver objects, but it stands out above all the so-called jewelery box of the Virgin, in which crowns, diadems, splendors, etc. are presented. of precious stones, and the collection of more than 350 cloaks of the Virgin.
Most of the Zaragoza archbishops of the Modern Age are buried in the Basilica del Pilar, as well as the bodies of Saint Braulio and the Duke of Zaragoza, General Palafox, among others.
As a curiosity, we must talk about the bombs that were dropped on the basilica in the Civil War. In the early morning of August 3, 1936, a Fokker F-VII bomber of the Spanish Republican Army, flying at low altitude, dropped four bombs on the city; one of them fell in the streets of Zaragoza, outside the temple; another fell in the same Plaza del Pilar, in front of Alfonso street, "marking a cross on the ground and raising five cobblestones" - reported the rebel press the next day; another went through the roof of the temple and the last one fell into the same golden frame of the Goya mural in the Coreto. None of the bombs exploded, but the strong impact shattered them, spilling the explosive through the bottom of the vault. Today two of these projectiles are exhibited and preserved on one of the pillars near the Holy Chapel.
This fact was attributed, in the rebellious side and among the population of Zaragoza, to a miracle of the Virgin. However, the event cannot be considered exceptional, because the bombs used, like a large part of the weapons available to both sides at the beginning of the war, were outdated and out of use; on the other hand, there were frequent acts of sabotage between the servants of the Republican Navy and Aviation (the bombs, according to a report by the Director of the Zaragoza Artillery Park, were poorly assembled) and, as if that were not enough, the bombs were designed to explode only if they were they launched above 500 meters, and not from 150 as the inexperienced (or perhaps, according to some, little inclined to bombing the temple) aviator did.
It is also worth noting the presence of the flags of Spain and Latin America, as the Virgen del Pilar is the patron saint of Hispanicity.
Fresco paintings
All the domes that surround and crown the Holy Chapel are painted. Antonio González Velázquez painted in 1753 the elliptical dome over the chapel of the Virgin and the remaining ones were painted by the brothers Ramón and Francisco Bayeu and Francisco de Goya, who decorated the one that bears the name of Regina Martirum ('Queen of the Martyrs') and the vault of the Coreto. The main dome, the one that covers the organ and the Main Choir, and the elliptical dome of the central nave in front of the Choir also received pictorial ornamentation. Sketches for many of these works are kept in the cathedral museum.
- Situation plan of the paintings of the domes of the surroundings of the Santa Capilla.
Paintings of the domes around the Holy Chapel (18th century)
In 1752, while construction began on the Holy Chapel, Ventura Rodríguez proposed that the young Antonio González Velázquez, who was in Rome studying with Corrado Giaquinto, decorate the elliptical dome of this space. 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 Virgen del Pilar in the better half, at which 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 continued, with the commission 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 entrusted Francisco Bayeu, then court painter, with the rest of the domes and vaults that surrounded the Holy Chapel. He began by painting the vault located in the section in front of the chapel of the Virgin, with the theme Regina Sanctorum Omnium ('Queen of All Saints'), and continued with the vault located behind, the one dedicated to the queen of angels, Regina Angelorum. From 1780 Francisco Bayeu relied 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 little academic drawing, so, after painting the pendentives with more classicist adequacy after having been rejected the first drafts for them, he left the project very hurt with the council and at odds with his brother-in-law Francisco. Ramón Bayeu painted another three domes with the subjects Regina Virginum, Regina Patriarcharum and Regina Confessorum.
Central and foot domes of the temple (19th and 20th centuries)
After the catastrophe of the War of Independence, we had to wait until the second half of the XIX 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 Coronation of the Virgin; Marcelino de Unceta the Aragonese Martyrs and the Holy Bishops of the region; Francisco Lana, Santiago and the converts; Mariano Pescador, Holy Confessors of Aragon and the Innumerable Martyrs of Zaragoza; León Abadías, Aragonese Saints and First Saints of the New Testament. These last two also painted the pendentives with the four evangelists.
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 next to the Main Sacristy represents the Miracle of Calanda and the one in front, next to the Museo del Pilar, The Surrender of Granada.
The Holy Chapel of Pilar
The Chapel of Nuestra Señora del Pilar is an independent construction within the set of naves of the Cathedral. It constitutes a space, wide and intimate at the same time, integrated into the temple but with a particular scale. It is made in the classicist Baroque style, with cut domes, ruptures of glory, curved entablatures, and numerous sculptures and marble medallions.
The chapel, built based on 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. The works were directed by José Ramírez de Arellano —also the architect of the sculptural groups in the interior—, since Ventura Rodríguez was only in El Pilar twice and delegated responsibility for the execution from 1754 on to Ramírez de Arellano.
The space is conceived as a canopy inside the temple and is located under the second section of the central nave. The plan is curvilinear like a Greek cross with rounded tops on the plan, covered by a central elliptical dome, on an entablature that runs sinuously in a line of four lobes. The roof 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 right. of the viewer. The games of curves and volumes are indebted to the work of Bernini and Borromini, to Byzantine architecture, Rococo and Neoclassicism.
The Virgin of Pilar
The gilded wood carving of the Virgin is thirty-six centimeters high and rests on a jasper column, protected by a bronze and silver lining and covered by a cloak up to the feet of the image, with the exception of the days two, twelve and twentieth of each month in which the column appears visible on its entire surface. On the rear façade of the chapel there is a humilladero, where the faithful can venerate the Holy Column through an oculus open to jasper.
This is a Franco-Burgundian late Gothic sculpture from around 1435 attributed to Juan de la Huerta, an image maker from Daroca. As for her iconography, Mary is crowned and wearing a tunic and cloak, which she picks up with her right hand, contemplating the Child Jesus who holds her mother's cloak with his right hand and a bird with his left.. The Virgin's face is tender 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, as a result of the cure of an illness that afflicted the queen at that time.
Altarpiece of the main altar
The altarpiece of the main altar was made of polychrome alabaster, with a wooden dust cover, by Damián Forment between 1515 and 1518 and is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin. The style of the architecture of the altarpiece is late Gothic, although the figurative scenes show fully Renaissance characteristics.
In 1509 the metropolitan council hired Damián Forment to design the bench or predella for 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" (that the of La Seo). In 1511, when the bench was almost finished, he would also contract the rest of the altarpiece, with three monumental scenes in its streets: the Assumption in the center, the Natalicio de la Virgen at her right and the Presentation of Mary in the temple to the left. Finally, in 1515, Forment delegated the work on the rest of the architectural decoration to masters hired for his workshop. The altarpiece finished settling in 1518.
Seven scenes are arranged on the predella from left to right: Meeting of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne at the golden gate, Annunciation, Visitation, Adoration of the Shepherds, Adoration of the Magi, Piety and Resurrection, separated by columns with canopies gothic buildings that house 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 their architectures and ornaments, typical Renaissance decoration appears, such as putti, cartouches or balusters. It is completed by two statues of Santiago el Mayor and Braulio de Zaragoza located in niches on the flanks. Likewise, in the basement there are heraldic shields supported by putti and medallions. The scenes in the bank still have traces of the original polychromy, although it has practically disappeared in the main streets.
Chorus
Front to the main altar, in the westernmost section of the Basilica, is a renaissance choir of remarkable quality carved in Flanders oak wood that forms a set with stalls topped by a high cornice and mercy, organ and grille.
It was carved by Esteban de Obray, Juan de Moreto and Nicolás Lobato between 1542 and 1548. It is a masonry with three rows of superimposed seats in the form of a step and arranged in an ultra-semicircular plan. In the lower part of the seats there are inlaid works with yellow boxwood inlays. At first there were 138 seats, but today there are 124 left; some were reused, placing them on the sides of the presbytery of the main altar.
The iconographic program of medioreliefs on the backs is one of the important works in this area of the Spanish Renaissance. The presidential places include 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 cathedral's main organ, whose case was described by Juan Bautista Labaña in 1610 as "extremely sculptured", was preserved in its original appearance until 1940. It was made by Juan de Moreto and Esteban Ropic in 1529 in the Plateresque style. In the middle of the XX century it was expanded, to be able to interpret the entire classical and romantic repertoire, increasing its register and widening its box, whose new parts were decorated imitating the style of the original carving.
The gate, Mannerist, was the work of builder Juan Tomás Celma carried out between 1573 and 1578. The marble base is due to Guillermo Salbán.
Coreto, sacristies and other chapels
In the entire perimeter of the Basílica del Pilar, in the space between the buttresses, there are several private chapels as well as other spaces used by the council. Starting from the Coreto de la Virgen, bordering the Holy Chapel, follow a clockwise route.
Coreto
In the central space on the east side, the one at 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 box is decorated in 1770 with putti from the workshop of Carlos Salas Viraseca, who was also in charge of the stucco decorations on the walls.. The lowered elliptical vault received in 1772 the mentioned fresco by Goya, The Adoration of the Name of God. The choir is closed by a jasper and bronze gate from 1792 topped with famas and cherubs made of painted wood imitating marble by José Sanz and a medallion with the anagram of the Virgin.
Chapel of Saint John the Baptist
In the southeast corner of the temple, the first chapel on the right as you enter through the low door that leads to the Plaza de las Catedrales, was ordered 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 San Juan Bautista, carved in wood with a way that anticipates the Rococo, stands out. 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 River, by Pablo Félix Rabiella y Sánchez, and on the left a Visitation, possibly by Jerónimo Lorieri. Important popular devotion is received by a Christ under a canopy arranged in the right angle, the Santo Cristo del Pilar, in the Andalusian Baroque style of the century XVII.
Chapel of Saint Anne
It contains an altarpiece from the second half of the 19th century in wood imitating jaspers. The main group is Santa Ana con la Virgen by Antonio Palao y Marco (1852) and on its sides are statues of Saint John of God —right— and Saint Francis of Paula —left—, late Baroque carvings eighteenth Three tables from the second half of the XVI century, anAnnunciation, 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 panels of San Vicente and San Valero by Roland de Mois.
Chapel of Saint Joseph
Includes a Baroque altarpiece from the first half of the XVII century, later reformed with neoclassical and academic additions in the XVIII and XIX, which shows sculptures of a follower of José Ramírez de Arellano. On the side walls hang canvases from the XVII century and in the right corner an engraving by Nicolás Grimaldi made in Rome in 1720.
Main Sacristy
In the center of the side facing the square is the Greater Sacristy, which is not open to the public. Goldsmithery dating from the XV century, which includes busts of Santa Ana, Santiago and Saint Ursula, Saint Joachim with the Virgin, Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus, Santiago Peregrino or Saint Dorothea. It also houses tapestries and furniture from the XVI century, Renaissance tables attributed to Juan de Juanes, Baroque canvases, reliquaries and other valuables..
Chapel of Saint Anthony of Padua
This Portuguese saint has been worshiped at El Pilar since the 14th century. This chapel, from 1713, was one of the first to be built and belongs to the Moncada family, holders of the Marquesado de Aitona, after being ceded to them by the town council for their economic 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 Saint Anthony of 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 on the predella, produces one of the most interesting altarpiece architectures in the region, which from the middle of the XVIII century, reproduced this combination of materials and chromaticism. It adopts Borrominesque Roman Baroque modes, with the sinuous set of columns, intercolumnios, 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, the San Miguel in the attic and the groups of angels, are made by Ramírez de Arellano in wood. polychrome. On the side walls, this same sculptor made an Appearance of the Virgin to Saint Anthony and the Transit of the same saint in stuccoed imitation marble plasterwork.
Chapel of San Braulio
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 XIX. It is not a work of great merit, consisting of a neo-baroque altarpiece whose niche houses the image of Archbishop San Braulio.
Rosary Chapel
It houses a wooden Herrerian altarpiece from circa 1601; In the central niche there is a sculpture of the Virgen del Rosario, 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, two personifications of Faith and Hope stand, very notable works by Carlos Salas Viraseca from around 1775. In the side streets and the bench of the altarpiece there are Mannerist tables with scenes of the Nativity, Visitation, Saint Catherine and other martyrs, and two reused canvases from later in the XVII 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 were part of the paintings on the left wall of the aforementioned chapel of Santa Ana: San Vicente, Saint Braulio, Dormition of the Virgin and Allegory of Christ with the Holy Family, all painted around 1580.
Then 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 northwestern corner of the temple, where the tower is located from which aerial views of Zaragoza can be seen, is the one that acts as a daily parish for non-extraordinary worship. It is the Chapel of San Agustín, known as the Parroquia del Pilar.
Chapel of San Agustín or Parroquia del Pilar
The altar is presided over by an altarpiece of St. Augustine made of stewed wood from around 1725 in the late Baroque style. The sculptures are well made: Appearance of the Virgin of the Rosary to Santo Domingo de Guzmán with Santa Catalina and Santa María Magdalena, with unusual iconography, San Judas Tadeo with Veronica and San Matías, which have been attributed to Juan Ramírez de Mejandre. The headline image, San Agustín, is worse.
Chapel of San Pedro Arbués
The keystone of the entrance arch to the chapel contains the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Council of Zaragoza, to which the inquisitor Pedro Arbués belonged, assassinated in La Seo and later canonized as a martyr of the Catholic Church. The chapel contains an altarpiece from the XIX century with relief in 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 who processions with this on Good Friday mornings since 2014.
Chapel of Saint Lawrence
Another of the chapels that contains elements of the original baroque factory inaugurated in 1718, as does the one in San Antonio de Padua. The fresco in the dome, a Subida de San Lorenzo a la Gloria carried by angels, a dynamic Baroque composition from 1717 by Francisco del Plano, and the arrimadero or plinth made of Valencian tiles, still remain from that period. 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 technique of loose brushwork 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 the medio-relief of the central scene in a neoclassical academic style, Ascent of Saint Lawrence to Heaven, and the scene of the predella, Killing of Pope Sixtus II and his deacons by Valerian's troops.
Following this route, I would continue with the space dedicated to the Pilarista Museum, which will be discussed last.
Chapel of San Joaquín
Its altar is made up of a classicist gilded wood altarpiece from around 1770 from a convent in Tauste. In 1852, a San Joaquín with the Virgin Child by Antonio Palao was incorporated into its central alcove 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 hero of the eighteenth-century campaigns in Italy, specifically in the battle of Vitonto, through which the Spanish Monarchy recovered the kingdom of Naples.
Sacristy of the Virgin
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 ocher to earthy 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 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 XX century guarded the "Jewels of the Virgin", currently in the Museo del Pillar.
Inside two ornate Rococo urns and on tray-like paths, we can see two polychrome beheaded heads of Saint Paul and Saint Peter, very effective, also attributed to Ramirez de Arellano.
Chapel of Santiago or Communion
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 Church Fathers remain. The titular statue of Santiago is by Antonio Palao, a sculptor from the mid-XIX century, as are the four free images of the angles of the small canopy.
Pillar Museum
In what was until 1977 the prayer room of the Basilica, works of artistic and emotional value related to the cult of the Virgen del 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 Nuestra Señora del Pilar are kept, one of them, that of the canonical coronation of 1905, made of gold and precious stones. Also shown in this space are the jewels of the Virgin, luxury gold and silverware whose oldest examples, some tendrils, date from the 17th century. You can also see enamels from Limoges, medals of the Virgin and even a silver bull given to the Virgin by the legendary bullfighter Francisco Cúchares in 1839. Liturgical objects (chalices, pastoral rings) complete the collection.
The walls exhibit most of the sketches that were delivered 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 XIII century, a Arabic ivory box from the same century, an autograph letter from Santa Teresa de Jesús and, fundamentally, the Olifante of Gastón IV de Béarn. It is a carved ivory hunting horn from the early XII century that was donated to the temple in 1135 by the widow of the leader 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 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
The first organ, as far as is known, was built in 1463 by Enrique de Colonia. In 1537 he built a new one by Martín de Córdoba with the intention of being able to compete with that of La Seo.
Guillermo de Lupe and his son Gaudioso restructured the main organ between 1595 and 1602, following Guillermo's reform of the Cathedral of El Salvador in 1577.
In 1657 it is known that there are several organs in the church, perhaps five of various sizes and possibilities. Musical activity is therefore rich and varied during the Golden Age, but it will begin to decline at the end of the XVIII century.
Since the Middle Ages a musician (ministril) accompanied the voices of the capella of singing musicians with the bassoon. The existence of instrumental polyphony has been documented since the mid-XVI century in which instrumental polyphony appeared, with musicians playing the «tenor » and «double bass». In the last quarter of this century, already forming an orchestra of minstrels, they agreed to work for the Zaragoza Metropolitan Council, the Provincial Council of the Kingdom of Aragon and the church of Santa María la Mayor, predecessor of the Cathedral Basilica. The musical archive of El Pilar is united with that of La Seo, and brings together a huge amount of musical production from the Modern Age to the present day.
Among the most important directors of the musical activity of the Basílica del Pilar, the following chapel masters and organists stand out:
Kappel Masters
- Century XVI. Juan García de Basurto, Melchor Robledo, Antón Vergara, Cristóbal Cortés, Juan Pujol.
- Century XVII. Urbán de Vargas, Juan Marqués, José Ruiz Samaniego, José Alonso Torices, Juan Pérez Roldán, Diego de Cáseda and Zaldívar, Jerónimo Latorre, Miguel Ambiela.
- Century XVIII. Joaquín Martínez de la Roca, Luis Serra, Bernardo Miralles, Cayetano Echevarría, Joaquín Lázaro, Manuel Álvarez, José Gil de Palomar, Vicente Fernández.
- Century XIX. Hilario Prádanos, Antonio Félix Lozano González, Francisco Agüeras.
- Century XX.. Gregorio Arciniega, Juan Azagra Vicente, José Vicente González Valle.
Organists
- Century XVI. Mosén Mountain, Pedro Ricardo, Martín Monje, Juan Marco.
- Century XVII. Pedro Blasco, Juan Luis Lope, José Muniesa, Diego Xaraba and Bruna, Jerónimo Latorre, Joaquín Martínez de la Roca.
- Century XVIII. Tomás Soriano, Ramón Cuéllar.
- Century XIX. Ramon Ferreñac, Valentín Melón.
- Century XX.. Pedro León Andía Labarta, Francisco Agüeras, Gregorio Garcés Til.