Leon, Burgos and Salamanca: a historical and descriptive account

by Albert Frederick Calvert

Minor Churches

Among the sacred edifices of Salamanca, next to the two cathedrals, ranks the church and convent of the Dominicans, variously known as Santo Domingo and San Estéban. The Dominicans, on their establishment at Salamanca in the year 1221, were first housed at San Juan el Blanco. Thirty years later they removed to San Estéban. Their convent was honoured in 1484 by the presence of Columbus, who found a generous host, a powerful protector, and a mind sufficiently broad to comprehend his project in the Friar Diego de Deza, afterwards grand inquisitor of Spain. His scheme, rejected by the university, was carefully considered by this learned man, and recommended to the queen. In gratitude, Columbus named the first town founded by him in the New World, Santo Domingo, after the order which had befriended him. From this monastery, too, departed the first Christian missionaries for America.

The building itself, unfortunately, has disappeared. It was pulled down in 1524 to make room for the present superb edifice, designed by Juan de Alava, the fellow-workman of Hontañon, who was succeeded by four other architects, till the completion of the work in 1610. The church is accounted one of the two or three most important monuments of the middle Renaissance period in Spain. The main façade, in the soft sandstone usual here, exhibits a marvellous profusion of figures, ‘excellently wrought, beautiful of themselves,’ remarks a critic, ‘but lacking in appropriateness, and not forming a part of a comprehensive scheme.’ On each side of the doorway, between pillars, are seen the figures of four of the Dominican saints; above, between four similarly placed statues of the doctors of the church, is an admirable relief of the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, executed by Juan Ceroni of Milan, who has carved his name and the date (1610) on the stones which were the instruments of the saint’s death. Above this, again, is a Crucifixion, overshadowed by the great arch which encloses the whole façade. The medallions and friezes exhibit very careful and graceful workmanship.

The side façades are mainly Gothic in character. Each buttress is surmounted by an ornate pinnacle. The nave is almost as spacious as that of the cathedral. The six-pointed vaults spring from fluted columns, and are brilliant with gilding. The windows of three lights and the rose-windows above are filled with good stained glass. The gorgeous retablo, which cost the Duke of Alba 4000 of his pine trees, is the work of Churriguera; its garishness is redeemed by the fine painting of the Martyrdom of St. Stephen by Claudio Coello, and the curious twelfth-century image of the Virgin de la Vega in gilt bronze. Over the choir, built by Bishop de Aranjo, is the fine Apotheosis of St. Dominic, a fresco by Palomino. The frescoes over the altar of the Rosary and in the chapel of the Cristo de la Luz are by his contemporary, Villamor. In the chapel of St. John is the tomb of Don Lope de Paz, the defender of Rhodes and Eubœa, and in a wooden urn in the Reliquary chapel are contained the ashes of the terror of the Low Countries, Fernando de Toledo, Duke of Alba.

The chapter-house is a grandiose apartment, with pillars of the Doric order, and a Corinthian altar beneath a canopy. Here may be seen some bas-reliefs of the thirteenth century from the old church. In the magnificent sacristy is the tomb of Bishop Herrera of Tuy, who died in 1632, and is shown in a kneeling posture. More interesting is the cloister, with its early Renaissance arcading and fanwork vaulting. Some of the medallions and reliefs which adorn the cloister were designed by Alfonso Sardiña in 1626. The noble staircase adorned by a Magdalene, which was executed by order of the illustrious Dominican theologian, Fray Domingo Soto, of whom it was punningly said, ‘Qui scit Sotum, scit totum.’

The seminary, built in 1617 by Gómez de Mora for the Society of Jesus, is a building of the type more commonly admired by Spaniards than other peoples. It is vast and heavy, commanding respect by its bulk rather than its proportions. Over the façade, with its six gigantic columns, rise two lofty steeples, flanking an acroterium with very bad statuary. The cupola or lantern is not ungracefully constructed, but spoilt with indifferent ornamentation. The interior is cold and monotonous, though free from the extravagant decoration of the epoch of its construction. The sacristy, which contains four copies of paintings by Rubens, is vast even for this vast church, the richest Jesuit establishment in Spain.

Another great but much less admirable pile is the church of the Recollect Augustine nuns, the convent having been founded in 1626 by the favourite of Felipe IV., the Count of Monterey, as a retreat for his sister, Doña Catilina. The architect was Juan Fontana. The church is in the usual shape of a Latin cross, and is richly adorned with coloured marbles, jasper, and lapis lazuli. The architecture was spoilt by injudicious repairs effected on the collapse of the dome in 1680. The tombs of the founder and his wife are in indifferent taste, but the statues are good. The church is rich in paintings. Ribera’s Conception hangs over the high altar, and the handsome retablo is adorned by his Virgin de la Piedad. In the transept are two other works of the same master—Our Lady of the Rosary and the Nativity. These paintings were bought in Naples by Monterey, then viceroy, at the time of the papal pronouncement on the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. According to Ford, it is believed that better pictures are preserved in the convent itself, which is not open to visitors.

San Benito is an interesting church, originally founded by the Galician settlers in 1104, and rebuilt in the late Gothic style by the Maldonado family in the fifteenth century. The tombs of several members of that family are within. The statues of Arias Perez Maldonado and his wife lie to the right and left of the chancel. The knight wears armour, and a page rests at his feet; the lady wears the costume of the age of Isabel the Catholic. Here also sleeps that haughty lord of Monleón, whose wife was so reluctant to save his life at the expense of his castle. From this church the Maldonado faction took the name of San Benito; the opposite faction, descended from Maria la Brava, affected the church of Santo Tomé de los Caballeros. There are some good tombs of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries in the church of San Isidoro, founded by the French settlers of Count Raymond. The Portuguese built the little church dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury, which still preserves a triple apse and windows in the Romanesque style. The doorway is Gothic, and the tomb of Bishop de Velasco, supported by lions, obviously of the Renaissance. San Martin, built by settlers from Toro, though injured by a fire in 1854, preserves many ancient features. Some of the columns of the nave are Byzantine, and the doorway, with its triple-pointed arch, belongs to the best Gothic period. The south front is Renaissance. This is the burial-place of the Santisteban family. An architectural curiosity to which Street calls attention, is the little circular church of San Marcos, close to the wall at the north end of the city, with its three apses vaulted with semi-domes, while the rest of the edifice is roofed with wood. This odd little church was built as a chapel royal by Alfonso IX. in 1202.

The only church of interest besides those enumerated above is the Sancti Spiritus, built about 1190, and granted to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in 1222. Afterwards, with the adjacent convent, it passed into the possession of an aristocratic sisterhood. Rebuilt in 1541 by Leonor de Acevedo, the portal is in the Renaissance style, and the interior in late Gothic. The lower choir has fine artesonado work and well-carved stalls. The retablo, which dates from 1659, displays fine reliefs of the life of St. James, and good statues of the apostles. Near the entrance are the tombs of the great benefactors of the convent, Martin Alfonso, natural son of Alfonso IX., and his wife, Maria Mendez, a Portuguese lady (1270). Another tomb is that of Pedro Vidal, an ecclesiastic, who died in 1363.