The Cathedrals of Northern Spain / Their History and Their Architecture; Together with Much of Interest Concerning the Bishops, Rulers and Other Personages Identified with Them

by Charles Rudy

PLASENCIA

The foundation of Plasencia by King Alfonso VIII. in 1178, and the erection of a new episcopal see twelve years later, can be regarded as the coup de grâce given to the importance of Coria, the twin sister forty miles away. Nevertheless, the Royal City, as Plasencia was called, which ended by burying its older rival in the most shocking oblivion, was not able to acquire a name in history. Founded by a king, and handed over to a bishop and to favourite courtiers, who ruled it indifferently well, not to say badly, it grew up to be an aristocratic town without a bourgeoisie. Its history in the middle ages is consequently one long series of family feuds, duels, and tragedies, the record of bloody happenings, and acts of heroic brutality and bravery.

In 1233 a Moorish army conquered it, shortly after the battle of Alarcos was lost[{285}] to Alfonso VIII., at that time blindly in love with his beautiful Jewish mistress, Rachel of Toledo. But the infidels did not remain master of the situation, far less of the city, for any length of time, as within the next year or so it fell again into the hands of its founder, who strengthened the walls still standing to-day, and completed the citadel.

The population of the city, like that of Toledo, was mixed. Christians, Jews, and Moors lived together, each in their quarter, and together they used the fertile vegas, which surround the town. The Jews and Moors were, in the fifteenth century, about ten thousand in number; in 1492 the former were expelled by the Catholic kings, and in 1609 Philip III. signed a decree expelling the Moors. Since then Plasencia has lost its municipal wealth and importance, and the see, from being one of the richest in Spain, rapidly sank until to-day it drags along a weary life, impoverished and unimportant.

The Jewish cemetery is still to be seen in the outskirts of the town; Arab remains, both architectural and irrigatory, are everywhere present, and the quarter inhabited by[{286}] them, the most picturesque in Plasencia, is a Moorish village.

The city itself, crowning a hill beside the rushing Ierte, is a small Toledo; its streets are narrow and winding; its church towers are numerous, and the red brick houses warmly reflect the brilliancy of the southern atmosphere. The same death, however, the same inactivity and lack of movement, which characterize Toledo and other cities, hover in the alleys and in the public squares, in the fertile vegas and silent patios of Plasencia.

The history of the feuds between the great Castilian families who lived here is tragically interesting: Hernan Perez killed by Diego Alvarez, the son of one of the former's victims; the family of Monroye pitched against the Zuñigas and other noblemen,—these and many other traditions are among the most stirring of the events that happened in Spain in the middle ages.

Even the bishops called upon to occupy the see seem to have been slaves to the warlike spirit that hovered, as it were, in the very atmosphere of the town. The first prelate, Don Domingo, won the battle of Navas de Tolosa for his protector, Alfonso VIII.[{287}] When the Christian army was wavering, he rushed to the front (with his naked sword, the cross having been left at home), at the head of his soldiers, and drove the already triumphant Moors back until they broke their ranks and fled. The same bishop carried the Christian sword to the very heart of the Moorish dominions, to Granada, and conquered neighbouring Loja. The next prelate, Don Adán, was one of the leaders of the army that conquered Cordoba in 1236, and, entering the celebrated mezquita, sanctified its use as a Christian church.

The history of the cathedral church is no less interesting. The primitive see was temporarily placed in a church on a hill near the fortress; this building was pulled down in the fifteenth century, and replaced by a Jesuit college.

Toward the beginning of the fourteenth century a cathedral church was inaugurated. Its life was short, however, for in 1498 it was partially pulled down to make way for a newer and larger edifice, which is to-day the unfinished Renaissance cathedral visited by the tourist.