Andalusia Andalusia Andalusia ' onMouseout='HidePop("45420")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Spain">Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
.
History
Unlike most cathedrals in Spain, construction of this cathedral had to await the acquisition of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada from its Muslim rulers in 1492; while its very early plans had
GothicGothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
designs, such as are evident in the
Royal Chapel of GranadaThe Capilla Real de Granada, or Royal Chapel located in the city of Granada is a mausoleum that houses the remains of the Catholic Monarchs , Don Fernando de Aragón and Doña Isabel de Castilla....
by Enrique Egas, the construction of the church in the main occurred at a time when
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
designs were supplanting the Gothic regnant in Spanish architecture of prior centuries. Foundations for the church were laid by the architect Egas starting from 1518 to 1523 atop the site of the city's main mosque; by 1529, Egas was replaced by Diego de Siloé who labored for nearly four decades on the structure from ground to cornice, planning the
triforiumA triforium is a shallow gallery of arches within the thickness of inner wall, which stands above the nave in a church or cathedral. It may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be located as a separate level below the clerestory. It may itself have an outer wall of glass rather...
and five naves instead of the usual three. Most unusually, he created a circular capilla mayor rather than a semicircular apse, perhaps inspired by Italian ideas for circular 'perfect buildings' (eg in Alberti's works). Within its structure the cathedral combines other orders of architecture. It took 181 years for the cathedral to be built.
Subsequent architects included Juan de Maena (1563-1571), followed by Juan de Orea (1571-1590), and Ambrosio de Vico (1590-?). In 1667 Alonso Cano, working with Gaspar de la Peña, altered the initial plan for the main façade, introducing
BaroqueBaroque architecture, starting in the early 17th century in Italy, took the humanist Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical, theatrical, sculptural fashion, expressing the triumph of absolutist church and state. New architectural concerns for color, light and...
elements. The magnificence of the building would be even greater, if the two large 81 meter towers foreseen in the plans had been built; however the project remained incomplete for various reasons, among them, financial.
The Cathedral had been intended to become the royal mausoleum by Charles I of Spain of Spain, but Phillip II of Spain moved the site for his father and subsequent kings to
El EscorialEl Escorial is a historical residence of the king of Spain. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, and school...
outside of Madrid.
The main chapel contains two kneeling effigies of the Catholic King and Queen, Isabel and
FerdinandFerdinand of Aragon may refer to:* Ferdinand I of Aragon, also known as Ferdinand of Antequera * Ferdinand II of Aragon, who married Isabella of Castile to become king of Spain, * Ferdinand of Aragón, Duke of Calabria...
by Pedro de Mena y Medrano. The busts of Adam and Eve were made by Alonso Cano. The Chapel of the Trinity has a marvelous retablo with paintings by
El GrecoEl Greco was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that...
,
Jose RiberaJusepe de Ribera was a Spanish Tenebrist painter and printmaker, also known as José de Ribera in Spanish and as Giuseppe Ribera in Italian. He was also called by his contemporaries and early writers Lo Spagnoletto, or "the Little Spaniard"...
, Alonso Cano, and the Spanoleto.
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