In plan the church is a Latin cross, one arm having been removed to make way for the new cathedral. The nave and aisles terminate in apsidal chapels. Cloisters adjoin the southern side, and the entrance from the west is through a long portico, once flanked by two massive fortified towers. This vestibule is Byzantine, though adorned with Gothic statuary, and now entered through a very poor arrangement of Doric and Corinthian columns.
The nave produces a more imposing effect than is usual in Spanish churches, owing to the absence of a choir. There is no triforium, but the nave is lighted by round-arched windows of single lights. Over the crossing rises the glorious dome or lantern, called by the Salamancans the Torre del Gallo from the weathercock on its apex. This fine work is supported on arcades, divided into sixteen compartments, and pierced with windows over each of the cardinal sides. Outside, the lantern is roofed with scaled tiles. At the four angles are rounded pinnacles with continuously moulded windows; between these and contrasting with them are pointed gables with windows, the arches of which spring sharply from capitals. In his work on Gothic Architecture in Spain, Mr. Street remarks, ‘I have seldom seen any central lantern more thoroughly good and effective from every point of view than this is: it seems to solve, better than the lantern of any church I have yet seen elsewhere, the question of the introduction of the dome to Gothic churches. Though the scale of this work is very moderate, its solidity and firmness are excessive, and thus only is it that it maintains that dignified manliness of architectural character which so very few of our modern architects ever seem even to strive for.’
Standing beneath the lantern, we see the fine wooden retablo, adjusted so as to fit the curving wall of the apse. Its fifty-five subjects are arranged in five rows, and enclosed each in an arched frame painted white and gold. These paintings, representing scenes from the life and passion of Christ, are more delicate and skilful than the fresco of the Last Judgment, on the semi-dome above, painted perhaps half a century later in 1446, by Nicolás Florentino.
The chancel was at first reserved as a burying-place only for those of the blood-royal. Here are the tombs of the Infanta Mafalda, daughter of the King of Castile, who died here in the kingdom of Leon in 1204; of Don Fernando Alfonso, natural son of Alfonso IX., Dean of Santiago and Archdeacon of Salamanca; and of his natural son by Doña Aldara Lopez, Don Juan Fernandez, surnamed the Golden-Haired, a brave warrior, who died in 1303. On the gospel side is the tomb of good Bishop Sancho de Castilla, a descendant of Pedro the Cruel, and Doña Juana de Castro, who died in 1446, and close to him his successor Vivero, a counsellor of Fernando and Isabel. The statues of the two prelates are contained in the same sepulchral arch. Here also lie the noble cavaliers, Don Diego Arias, Archdeacon of Toro (obiit 1350), and Don Arias Diez Maldonado (1474), both benefactors of the cathedral, whose ashes were removed here in 1620 by order of the dean and chapter. In the chapel of St. Nicholas, on the epistle side, lies the Dominican Bishop Fray Pedro, who baptized Alfonso XI., and died in the first quarter of the fourteenth century; his effigy is enclosed by a pointed arch, above which Christ is shown as judge.
In the south transept, still fortunately preserved, are four interesting tombs, which appear to date from the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century. The first is crudely sculptured with reliefs of the Adoration of the Magi, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection; the recumbent figure is said to be that of Diego Lopez, Archdeacon of Ledesma. Beneath a star-shaped cupola is the hooded figure of a woman, one Doña Elena, who passed away in the year 1272; the reliefs represent her deathbed and ascent to heaven. The third tomb is that of Don Alfonso Vidal, Dean of Avila and Canon of Salamanca; and the fourth, in the best Gothic style and fine arabesques, probably dates from the beginning of the fifteenth, rather than the preceding, century. It certainly cannot be, as used to be believed, the tomb of the precentor Aparitius, who died in 1274. Other very plain tombs are to be seen in the aisles, which are adorned with paintings by Fernando Gallego, called by Quadrado the Dürer of Salamanca.
The cloister, though as old as the church, has been extensively modernised. The doorway from the transept, however, has not lost its Byzantine character, nor its capitals their beautiful ornamentation of foliage with birds and nude figures. The four altars at the angles, dedicated respectively to the Blessed Virgin, St. Michael, St. Anthony of Padua, and the Magi, are enriched with the paintings of Gallego. In the cloister are also some tombs in the late Gothic style. The sarcophagus of the Archdeacon Diego Rodriguez (1504) is upheld by three lions; and another tomb enshrines the remains of Pedro Xerique (1529), a canon of this cathedral, who left a fund for the endowment of fifty poor girls with dowries—a very necessary bequest in these unsentimental Latin countries! Of the old twelfth-century sepulchres nothing but a few epitaphs and tablets remain.
Communicating with the cloister by some very ancient doorways are four interesting chapels. The oldest is the Capilla de Talavera, so called after the ‘Doctor de Talavera’ (one of the Maldonado family), who in the beginning of the fifteenth century endowed it with twelve chaplaincies for the celebration of the Mozarabic ritual. The chapel must have been very old at that time. ‘It is a very remarkable chamber,’ says Street, ‘square in plan below, and brought to an octagon above by arches thrown across the angles, and finally roofed with a sort of dome, carried upon moulded and carved ribs of very intricate contrivance. The interlacing of these ribs gives the work somewhat the effect of being Moorish, and there can be little doubt, I think, that it owes its peculiarities in some degree to Moorish influence. I should be inclined to attribute this room and its vault to the architect of the lantern of the church.’ The Mozarabic rite is still performed here six times a year.
The Capilla de Santa Barbara was founded about the year 1350 by Bishop Juan Lucero, who is buried here. His tomb was hidden during centuries by the table at which sat the examiners of the university and at which were conferred degrees. There are several other notable tombs belonging to the Gothic period. The effigy of a knight with a long beard and sword represents one Garcia Ruiz, the ecclesiastic close by, Canon Garcia de Medina, who died in 1474.
In the beautiful Gothic chapel of St. Catalina or Capilla del Canto, now dismantled and neglected, synods and provincial councils were customarily held. The fourth chapel, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, was founded early in the fifteenth century by Diego de Anaya, Archbishop of Seville. This prelate was a native of Salamanca, and took a prominent part in affairs of state. He was deputed to persuade the anti-pope, Don Pedro de Luna, to abandon his claims to the papacy; and failing in this, or for some other reason, was not suffered to take possession of his see till a few years before his death. The roof of the chapel is adorned with stars on a very dark background. Something of the Byzantine spirit is traceable in the ornamentation. Attention is however distracted from these details to the imposing tombs of the founder and his family. Enclosed by a fine railing with Renaissance designs of centaurs and floral scrolls, the recumbent statue of the bishop is seen, clad in full pontificals and watched over by a lion, a dog, and a hare. The tomb is of pure alabaster, and supported by lions. At the angles are groups of bishops and friars, and at the sides Christ with the Twelve Apostles and the Virgin with an equal number of female saints. The architects of this fine work and of the equally admirable railing are, unfortunately, unknown. Several others of the tombs in this chapel are of scarcely inferior conception and workmanship. The statues, believed to represent Don Gabriel de Anaya and his wife, and two earlier fifteenth-century effigies of a knight and a lady, are in partly Moorish costume, according to an affectation of that age. The only tomb with an epitaph is that of Doña Beatriz de Guzman, sister-in-law of the founder. The two sons born to Don Diego before he entered the Church by Doña Maria de Orozco are also buried here: on the gospel side lies Don Diego Gomez, fully armed, with a lion at his feet; his brother, the warlike archdeacon, Juan Gomez, rests in the niche adjoining the retablo.
The chapter house, also communicating with the cloister, contains some beautifully carved chairs and tables, and a replica of a Madonna and Child by Reni.