Toledo: an historical and descriptive account of the "City of generations"

by Albert Frederick Calvert

The Capilla Mayor, or High Chapel, occupies the eastern end of the nave, the aisles sweeping round behind it. The hinder portion was originally the Capilla de los Reyes Viejos, the chapel in which were entombed Sancho el Bravo, Sancho el Deseado, Alfonso VII., and others. In the year 1498 the two chapels were thrown into one by Cardinal Cisneros, who left the royal tombs for a time undisturbed. The High Chapel, according to O’Shea, measures 56 feet in length, 50 feet in breadth, and 116 feet in height. The piers are sculptured with the effigies of kings, prelates, and saints, and with “a multitude of angels playing on different instruments, and with outspread wings, that want but incense to raise them again from the spot where they have alighted.” The walls of the chapel are pierced or of open-work, the stone in parts being almost transparent, and thus adding to the brightness of the effect. Two rows of statuary enhance the beauty of the stonework, which is among the earliest portions of the fabric. But these walls, for all their magnificence, are put in the shade by the superb reja or railing, facing that of the Choir, and contemporary with it. This work is thus described by Señor Riaño: ‘The reja is 42 feet wide by 19 inches high; it rests on a pediment of marble ornamented with masks and bronze work upon which rises the reja, which is divided horizontally by means of a frieze of ornamentation, and this again vertically into five compartments. In each vertical division there is a pilaster of four sides formed of repoussé plates, carved with a fine ornamentation in the Renaissance style; this is again terminated with life-size figures in high relief of bronze. The second compartment rises upon the band which divides it in a horizontal sense; it follows the same decoration in its pilasters, and is terminated by a series of coats of arms, torches, angels, and a variety of foliage which finishes the upper part. Upon the centre, hanging from a thick chain, supported from the roof, is suspended a life-size Rood of admirable effect, which completes the decoration. In several spots there are labels with mottoes in Latin; in one of them appears the following inscription, and the date of 1548, when the splendid work was finished: ‘Anno MDXLVIII. Paul III. P.M. Carol. V. Imper. Rege. Joannes Martinez Siliccus Archiepiscopus Tolet. Hispaniae Primat.’ The railings of the reja are silvered, and the reliefs and salient points gilt. The artist who made it was Francisco Villalpando, a native of Valladolid; this model was chosen in preference to those of several artists, who presented their plans in competition before the ecclesiastical authorities; it is calculated that ten years elapsed before it was finally finished, Villalpando was greatly distinguished likewise as a sculptor and architect.” By him are the gilt pulpits in the plateresque style, made from the bronze tomb that the Great Constable, De Luna, had caused to be designed for himself. On a pier at the extremity of the chapel is the statue of the celebrated shepherd, Martin Alhaga, who is said to have, semi-miraculously, guided Alfonso VIII. and his army to the rear of the Moorish forces at Las Navas de Tolosa—thus securing the victory to the Christians. The king, who alone saw his features, is said to have designed the statue. Opposite is the figure of the Moorish Alfaqui, Abu Walid, whose intercession secured the old mosque to the Catholics, in the manner already narrated.

The splendour of the High Altar, with its jasper and bronzes, renders a detailed description impossible and inadequate. Its magnificent retablo, rising to the very roof, is the richest gem of the Cathedral. Designed by Philip Vigarni (Borgoña), and painted and gilded by his brother Juan, numerous other masters contributed to its excellences. We may name Maître Petit Jean (of France or Aragon), Almonacid (a converted Moor), Copin (a Dutchman), Francesco of Antwerp, Fernando del Rincon, Egas, and Pedro Gumiel. The retablo is of wood and divided into five compartments by gorgeous columns. The subjects are from the New Testament, and are worked out with immense and ornate elaboration. The whole is crowned with a colossal Calvary. Behind the High Altar is placed that extraordinary example of eighteenth-century bad taste, the too famous Transparente. The whole architecture, painting, statues, carving and bronze is the work of the same person, Narciso Thomé who completed it in 1734. Much as we may denounce the taste (or rather the lack of it) of this triumph of the Churrigueresque style, we are obliged to admire the wonderful execution of this misdirected genius.

The royal tombs lie around the High Altar. They were placed in recesses, sculptured in the Gothic style by Diego Copin of Holland, by order of Cardinal Cisneros in 1507. The arches are peculiarly graceful and light. The tombs themselves date from much earlier times. Here sleep their last sleep Alfonso VII., Sancho el Bravo, Sancho el Deseado, and several Infantes. To the left of the altar is the sepulchre, more glorious than any king’s, of the great Cardinal Mendoza, erected by order of Isabel the Catholic, who owed so much to him. It was the work of Covarrubias, and is all of precious marbles. One side is formed by the sarcophagus with its recumbent effigy, the other by an altar. Above this last is a medallion representing the Archbishop Adoring the Cross. Part of the wall was demolished to make room for this stately mausoleum. Beneath the Capilla Mayor is a subterranean chapel, not of special interest. It contains a Burial of Christ by Copin, deserving of an inspection that in the dim light is well-nigh impossible, and some pictures by Ricci.

At the eastern extremity of the Cathedral, behind the Capilla Mayor and projecting beyond the general outline, is the chapel of San Ildefonso. Erected by Archbishop de Rada, it remains the last important middle-pointed feature of the building, though considerably modified by Cardinal Albornoz in the latter part of the fourteenth century. It is eight-sided, and has beautiful traceried windows, and arches richly moulded and decorated. In arched recesses, beneath gabled and pinnacled canopies, are the tombs of Cardinal Albornoz, and several members of his family. There is much beautiful detail on the tomb of Don Iñigo de Mendoza, who fell at Granada in 1491; and the sepulchre of the Bishop of Avila by Tejada is a noble temple of the plateresque. The altar is modern. St. Ildefonso was the prelate who distinguished himself by his advocacy of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. In return he is said to have received signal marks of favour from the Blessed Virgin, who invested him with a cassock, came down to attend Matins in his company, and so forth.

To the north of this chapel is the larger Capilla de Santiago, likewise projecting beyond the original ground plan, and dating from 1435. It was built by order of the Great Constable, Alvaro de Luna, to be the place of sepulchre of himself and wife, on the site of an earlier chapel dedicated to St. Thomas à Becket. The plan is similar to that of the last chapel described. Outside, the flat-pitched tile roof is finished with a battlement and circular turrets at the angles. The most conspicuous features of the chapel are the tombs, in Carrara marble, of the Constable Alvaro de Luna and his wife Doña Juana Pimentel. The Constable is shown in full armour, and at each corner of his tomb kneels a knight of Santiago, of which order he was Grand Master. Four Franciscan monks attend on his lady. In niches in the wall repose kinsmen of the ill-fated Constable, the tombs all having been executed by permission of Isabel the Catholic, by Pablo Ortiz in 1488, thirty-five years after De Luna’s death on the scaffold at Valladolid. The tombs designed for the Constable in his lifetime were to have been furnished with life-size figures in bronze, which, by mechanical contrivance, were to have risen each time Mass was celebrated, and to have remained during the service in a kneeling posture. These figures were destroyed by the Infante Don Enrique, and the bronze was used by Villalpando for the pulpits in the Capilla Mayor. The retablo of the High Altar reveals the portraits of the founder and his wife by Juan de Segovia. “The chapel,” says Mr. Street, “bears evidence in the ‘perpendicular’ character of its panelling, arcading and crocketing, of the poverty of the age in the matter of design. At this period, indeed, the designers were sculptors rather than architects, and thought of little but the display of their own manual dexterity.”

Passing down a corridor between this chapel and that of Santa Leocadia we reach the Capilla de los Reyes Nuevos, lying quite outside the original plan of the Cathedral. It was founded by Enrique II. of Trastamara, and contains his tomb, his wife’s, and the sepulchres of Enrique III., his Queen, Katharine of Lancaster, Juan I. and Queen Leonor, and the effigy of Juan II., who is buried near Burgos. The chapel is a fine specimen of the Renaissance style, reconstructed by Alfonso de Covarrubias in 1534. The portal is fine, and is guarded by two kings armed and bearing escutcheons. During Mass, a gorgeously apparelled functionary holds upright a mace, crowned and jewelled, and with the arms of Spain.

The side-chapels of the Cathedral are not, on the whole, as interesting as one would expect in a building of such antiquity and associations. To the south of the Capilla de San Ildefonso is the Capilla de la Trinidad; next comes the entrance to the Chapter House or Sala Capitular, an early sixteenth-century work with an artesonado ceiling in red, blue, and gold, excelling anything of the kind in Andalusia. The thirteen frescoes adorning the walls of the Chapter House are by Juan de Borgoña, who was also responsible for the earlier series of portraits of the archbishops. Copin’s work is to be recognised in the archiepiscopal throne, the other stalls being by Francisco de Lara. Returning to the church through a portal in the Moorish style, we find on the left the chapel of San Nicolas, followed by the chapels of San Gil, San Juan Bautista, Santa Ana, and the Reyes Viejos, founded in 1290 as the Capilla del Espritu Santo, with a fine reja by Céspedes. The chapel of Santa Lucia, founded by Archbishop de Rada, is, of course, in the best Gothic style, and has “an extremely rich recessed arch in stucco, of late Moorish work—a curious contrast to the fine pointed work of the chapel.”

The Capilla de San Eugenio contains the alabaster effigy of Bishop del Castillo (1521), and the tomb in the Mudejar style of the Alguacil Fernan Gudiel (1278). The statue of the saint is by Copin, the paintings on the retablo by Juan de Borgoña. Adjacent to the chapel is the colossal figure of Saint Christopher, usually seen in Spanish churches. This figure is probably coeval with the fabric, but was restored in 1638. A primitive style of art is also to be seen in the altar-piece of the Capilla de San Martin. The next two chapels—de la Epifania and de la Concepcion—do not present any features of special interest.

In the south-west angle of the church is the interesting Mozárabic Chapel, built in 1504 by Enrique de Egas, under the orders of the famous Cardinal Ximenes de Cisneros. It is devoted to the celebration of Mass and the offices of the church according to the Mozárabic ritual, which till the middle of the last century was followed in six of the parish churches. The Cupola dates from 1626, and was the work of Jorge Manuel Theotocopuli. The porch is Gothic, and the reja in good Renaissance style, executed by Juan Frances in 1524. The frescoes, of no great value, painted by Juan de Borgoña, represent the expedition against Oran, in which the great Cardinal took part. Miss Hannah Lynch gives a vigorously worded account of a service in this chapel according to its peculiar rite: “The quaint old ritual may be heard every morning at 9 A.M., and will be found extremely puzzling to follow. The canons, in a sombre, flat monotone, chant responses to the officiating priest at the altar. The sound combines the enervating effect of the hum of wings, whirr of looms, wooden thud of pedals, the boom and rush of immense wings circling round and round. After the first stupefaction, I have never heard anything more calculated to produce headache, nervous irritation, or the contrary soporific effect. In summer, it must be terrible.”

At the opposite, or north-west, angle of the church is the Chapel of San Juan or of the Canons, so called because Mass can be celebrated here only by those dignitaries. It was built in 1537 by Covarrubias in the Renaissance style, and occupies the site of the old tower chapel, called the Quo Vadis. The ceiling is of artesonado, in gold and black, with carved flowers and figures. Since 1870 this chapel has been the repository of the Cathedral Treasure, styled Las Alhajas, or the Jewels. Here is kept the gorgeous custodia, or portable tabernacle, made by order of Cardinal Cisneros by Juan de Arfe, who began it in 1517 and completed it without assistance in 1524. This triumph of the silversmith’s craft is in the form of a Gothic temple, eight feet high, with all the architectural details, such as columns, arches, and vaultings, the whole resembling delicate lacework. Scenes from the life of our Saviour are illustrated in reliefs. There are no fewer than two hundred and sixty statues of various sizes, all exhibiting the same skill. The tabernacle was gilded over in 1595 by Valdivieso and Morino. The viril inside, in which the Host is exposed, was made of the first gold brought from America, is completely covered with precious stones, and weighs twenty-nine pounds. In the Treasure is also included the mantle of the Virgen del Sagrario, considered by Señor de Riaño the most remarkable specimen of embroidery that exists in Spain. It is described in the following manner: “It is made of twelve yards of cloth of silver, entirely covered with gold and precious stones. In the centre is an ornament of amethysts and diamonds. Eight other jewels appear on each side of enamelled gold, emeralds, and large rubies; a variety of other jewels are placed at intervals round the mantle, and at the lower part are the arms of Cardinal Sandoval [seventeenth century] enamelled on gold and studded with sapphires and rubies. The centre of this mantle is covered with flowers and pomegranates embroidered in seed-pearls of different sizes. Round the borders are rows of large pearls. Besides the gems which are employed in this superb work of art, no less than 257 ounces of pearls of different sizes, 300 ounces of gold thread, 160 ounces of small pieces of enamelled gold, and eight ounces of emeralds were used.” The beautiful dish, repoussé in silver, the designs on which represent the Rape of the Sabines and the Death of Darius, was believed to be the work of Benvenuto Cellini, but is now ascribed to the Flemish artist, Mathias Méline. Among the Alhajas are also four geographical globes, with large silver figures, gleaming with gems—eighteenth-century work. Of historical interest is the sword, said to have been worn by Alfonso VI. on his entry into Toledo, and the original letter written by St. Louis of France to the Chapter, bestowing sacred relics obtained from the Great Emperor: “Given at Etampes, the year of our Lord, 1248, month of May.” Other objects of value are the Cope of Cardinal Albornoz and the Cruz de la Manga, made in the sixteenth century by Gregorio de Varona, a native of the city. Here, also, are the archiepiscopal cross, planted by Cardinal Mendoza on the summit of the Alhambra in 1492, and the Golden Bible in three volumes, dating from the twelfth century. It is to be doubted if the accumulation of these splendid objects, intended for diverse practical uses, in one collection, serves to show any of them to the best advantage.