Teruel Cathedral or Catedral de Santa María de Mediavilla de Teruel is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

Teruel Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 35,675 in 2014 making it the least populated provincial capital in the country. It is noted for its harsh climate, with ...

, Aragon,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Dedicated to St. Mary, it is a notable example of

Mudéjar Mudéjar ( , also , , ca, mudèjar , ; from ar, مدجن, mudajjan, subjugated; tamed; domesticated) refers to the group of Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late medieval period despite the Christian reconquest. It is also a term for ...

architecture. Together with other churches in the town and in the

province of Zaragoza Zaragoza (), also called Saragossa in English,''Encyclopædia Britannica''Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)/ref> is a province of northern Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Aragon. Its capital is Zaragoza, which is also t ...

, it has been listed as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

since 1986.

History

Catedral, Teruel, España, 2014-01-10, DD 37

The Cathedral of Teruel has its origins in the church of Santa María de Mediavilla, upon which work started in Romanesque style in 1171 and ended with the erection of the Mudéjar tower in 1257. In the second half of the 13th century, the

Morisco Moriscos (, ; pt, mouriscos ; Spanish for "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown commanded to convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed the open ...

alarife Juzaff restructured the old Romanesque work and endowed the building with three Mudéjar naves of

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

and brick. The Romanesque

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

s were replaced in the same Gothic-Mudéjar style as early as the 14th century, as can be seen in the head of the major

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

. The number of supports was reduced by half, leading to greater luminosity and spaciousness in the

pointed arch A pointed arch, ogival arch, or Gothic arch is an arch with a pointed crown, whose two curving sides meet at a relatively sharp angle at the top of the arch. This architectural element was particularly important in Gothic architecture. The earlie ...

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

s. Additionally, the walls were enlarged. In 1423, the Aragonese pontiff

Antipope Benedict XIII Pedro Martínez de Luna y Pérez de Gotor (25 November 1328 – 23 May 1423), known as in Spanish and Pope Luna in English, was an Aragonese nobleman who, as Benedict XIII, is considered an antipope (see Western Schism) by the Catholic Church ...

, the so-called "Pope Luna," raised it to the rank of a

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by ...

. The Mudéjar aspect has changed little since then. In 1538, the

lantern tower In architecture, the lantern tower is a tall construction above the junction of the four arms of a cruciform (cross-shaped) church, with openings through which light from outside can shine down to the crossing (so it also called a crossing lante ...

of the central nave was built by Martín de Montalbán in the

Plateresque Plateresque, meaning "in the manner of a silversmith" (''plata'' being silver in Spanish), was an artistic movement, especially architectural, developed in Spain and its territories, which appeared between the late Gothic and early Renaissance ...

-Mudéjar style. It was built on an octagonal plan on squinches and has on its exterior ajimezate windows with Plateresque decorations. Later, in 1587, with the creation of the diocese of Teruel, the building was promoted to the status of Cathedral and consecrated as such. Finally, in 1909, the facade was constructed in

Neo-mudéjar Neo-Mudéjar is a type of Moorish Revival architecture practised in the Iberian Peninsula and to a far lesser extent in Ibero-America. This architectural movement emerged as a revival of Mudéjar style. It was an architectural trend of the late ...

style based on a design of Pau Monguió.

The tower

The Mudejar tower began to be erected in 1257; its lower part is a barrel vault that passers-by can walk through. It is one of the oldest Mudéjar towers in Spain. It is square in shape with three sides profusely decorated with

azulejo ''Azulejo'' (, ; from the Arabic ''al- zillīj'', ) is a form of Spanish and Portuguese painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework. ''Azulejos'' are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, r ...

s and

ceramic glaze Ceramic glaze is an impervious layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fused to a pottery body through firing. Glaze can serve to color, decorate or waterproof an item. Glazing renders earthenware vessels suitable for holding ...

. The top is an octagonal roof lantern from the 17th century.

Mudéjar reform

After the completion of the Mudéjar tower, further changes were made in the second half of the 13th century under the direction of the Moor Juzaff – the elevation of the naves (in the line of the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

raising the temples), the construction of new Mudéjar

s, and the covering of the naves with ceilings in this same style. Construction for the first part of the building had advanced from the apses to the Mudéjar tower. Now, renovations proceeded in the opposite direction. Indeed, once the height of the three naves was raised and its illumination enhanced, and the new Mudéjar ceiling over the central nave was arranged, the primitive head was undoubtedly dwarfed and disproportionate in relation to the new naves. Therefore, a crossing and three new apses were constructed. This work was completed with the dismantling of

centring Centring, centre, centering"Centering 2, Centring 2" def. 1. Whitney, William Dwight, and Benjamin E. Smith. ''The Century dictionary and cyclopedia''. vol. 2. New York: Century Co., 1901. p. 885., or center is a type of formwork: the temporary str ...

s and with the plastering and painting thereof in 1335, according to a list of accounts kept in the Cathedral archive. The director of these last plastering works was the Moorish master from Coglor, Yuçaf de Huzmel.

Ceiling of the central nave

Almost all Mudéjar ceilings are

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also ...

ed, that is, merely decorative elements. In this case it is a roof covering, whose framework supports the upper part of the nave and consolidates the structure. It has been called the "

Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its nam ...

" of Mudéjar art, for its great architectural and pictorial value. It measures 32 meters in length and dates from 14th century. In its coffers are paintings of officers, craftsmen, historical figures, and fantastic beings. These diverse human types and extensive variety in pictorial imagery are well preserved because they were covered by a false Neoclassical ceiling in the 18th century, which protected the paintings from inclement weather. Some damage was suffered in the bombings of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

, but this was repaired.

Lantern tower

The

was designed in 1537 by the master Juan Lucas "Botero", who had been the architect of the lantern tower on Mudejar squinches of the Seo of Zaragoza and of the Cathedral of Tarazona. It was carried out in 1538 by the master builder Martín de Montalbán. The lantern tower illuminated the new main altarpiece (1536), a Renaissance masterpiece of the sculptor Gabriel Yoly.

Recent construction

Around the year 1700, the Gothic head was modified to create an

ambulatory The ambulatory ( la, ambulatorium, ‘walking place’) is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th ...

. Likewise, the ornamentation was modified to adapt it to the Neoclassical tastes, hiding behind the false ceiling of the 18th century the original Mudéjar roof, which allowed the painting to be conserved. In 1909 the enormous historicist southern façade was constructed, which combines a Neo-Romanesque structure of semicircular

archivolt An archivolt (or voussure) is an ornamental moulding or band following the curve on the underside of an arch. It is composed of bands of ornamental mouldings (or other architectural elements) surrounding an arched opening, corresponding to the ...

s with a typically neo-Mudéjar decoration. It was planned by the

Modernisme ''Modernisme'' (, Catalan for "modernism"), also known as Catalan modernism and Catalan art nouveau, is the historiographic denomination given to an art and literature movement associated with the search of a new entitlement of Catalan cultu ...

architect Pau Monguió. The portico closes with an iron gate by Matías Abad, which was inspired by the choir inside the cathedral, made by the 15th century master Cañamache.

World Heritage Site

The tower, roofing and lantern tower of the Cathedral of Teruel were declared, together with the Mudéjar monumental ensemble of the city, a

in 1986.Mudejar Architecture of Aragon
at

website According to the declaration:

References

Bibliography

* Santiago Sebastián; ''Artesonado de la catedral de Teruel''. Savings Bank and Mount of Piety of Zaragoza, Aragón and La Rioja (Ibercaja, Obra Social y Cultural) 1981

External links

Description and images of the cathedral

Page with virtual visit and photos

{{Subject bar , portal1= Architecture , portal2= Catholicism , portal3= Spain Buildings and structures in Teruel Churches in Aragon

Mudéjar architecture in Aragon Romanesque architecture in Aragon Buildings and structures completed in 1257 Religious buildings and structures completed in 1538 Towers completed in the 13th century Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Teruel Azulejos in Aragon World Heritage Sites in Spain