Catalonia & the Balearic Islands: an historical and desciptive account — John Shaqi
Catalonia & the Balearic Islands: an historical and desciptive accountCalvert, Albert Frederick
History
Catalonia & the Balearic Islands: an historical and desciptive account
Calvert, Albert Frederick
Balearic Islands (Spain) -- Description and travel; Catalonia (Spain) -- Description and travel
There is little remarkable about the High Altar. The choir-stalls are
richly carved, and date from the late fifteenth century. Like the stalls
of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, they are decorated with coats of
arms--those of the knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece, in
commemoration of the chapter held here by Charles V. (then only King of
Spain) in 1519. Among the Knights present were the Kings of Denmark and
Poland, the Prince of Orange, and the Duke of Alva. The rear wall of the
choir is beautifully adorned with columns, and reliefs of Bartolomé
Ordonez, and Pedro Vilar of Zaragoza, representing scenes from the life
of the titular. It is a fine example of the Spanish Renaissance style.
Before beginning an examination of the chapels, attention may be called
to the huge Saracen’s head hanging from the organ in the north
transept--a common feature in Catalan churches, and symbolising the
reconquest of their sites from the infidel.
A floor runs round the church above the side chapels and is carried
across the west front. The upper rooms were never used as places of
worship. The chapels are closed by mediæval grilles of wrought iron.
They date mostly from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and
present no very interesting features. This is fortunate for the
painstaking sightseer, as the obscurity renders an examination
difficult. A crucifix in the uppermost chapel in the chevet is a
memorial of the battle of Lepanto, where it was carried on the prow of
Don Juan’s flagship. The image is believed by some to have bent its head
to avoid the Turkish bullets. In the chapels of San Miguel Arcángel and
Nuestra Señora del Patrocinio, close by, are the fine Gothic tombs of
Bishop Berenguer de Palau (died 1240) and of one of his successors,
Poncio de Gualba (died 1334). Leaving the ambulatory by the north, the
chapel on the right contains another good Gothic monument to Bishop
Escaler. The finest tomb, on the whole, is that of Doña Sancha de
Cabrera, lady of Noalles, in the chapel of San Clemente, in the south
aisle; and three chapels farther on is the sarcophagus of the great
Catalan saint, Ramon de Penafort. The two wooden urns covered with
crimson velvet in the wall between the south transept and the sacristy
enshrine the ashes of Count Ramon Berenguer the Old, and his consort,
Almodis (died 1070). Opening off the south aisle, close to the main
entrance, is the large square chapel of the Holy Sacrament, or of St.
Olegarius, with a fine star-vaulting, the seventeenth-century monument
of the titular, and some paintings of Villadomat, a local artist of some
repute, who lived in the first half of the eighteenth century. There are
also some paintings of merit by the Tramullas, father and son, of
Perpignan, but generally speaking this fine cathedral is poor in
painting and statuary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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