Burgos: the cathedral, the Cid and the city gates: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
Gothic cathedral, El Cid, the city gates
Burgos was the capital of Castile, and its palaces, gates, hillside churches and cathedral keep the story of its heroes, from the Cid to the Catholic Monarchs, in layers of stone.
The stops
Begin on the bridge that carries the Cid's story. Eight sculptures by Joaquín Lucarini line it, among them Doña Jimena, Martín Antolínez and Álvar Fáñez, made in 1954 to a design by Fernando Chueca Goitia with advice from Ramón Menéndez Pidal. The bridge itself is probably from the 13th century, though no record says when it was built.
Photo: Marina González Llorente — CC BY-SA 4.0 The Cid rides out of Burgos on his horse Babieca, sword Tizona in his right hand, crossing the Arlanzón into exile and pointing towards Valencia. Juan Cristóbal González Quesada made the bronze, which was unveiled on 23 July 1955. It is one of seven equestrian monuments to the Cid in the world, with others in New York, San Francisco, San Diego, Buenos Aires, Valencia and Seville.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 Look above the main door: two coats of arms tied together by a stone cord, the Franciscan cord that gave the house its name. Pedro Fernández de Velasco, Constable of Castile, and his wife Mencía de Mendoza began the palace in 1476. The Catholic Monarchs received Columbus here in 1497 on his return from his second voyage, and Philip the Handsome died in the house in 1506.
Photo: Rafa Esteve — CC BY-SA 4.0 The Jesuits built this church between 1684 and 1694 under the patronage of Francisco de San Vítores, and in the sanctuary the tomb of the foundress, Francisca de San Vítores, carries her stone figure at prayer before a prie-dieu. The tower is set so that it carries on the line of the façade, and inside a great ribbed dome lit by a lantern rises over a Greek-cross plan. Father Astete, author of a widely read catechism, is known to be buried here, though nobody has found the spot.
Photo: Jl FilpoC — CC BY-SA 4.0 From outside San Gil looks plain, because it was built into the city wall. Inside is the finest Gothic ensemble in Burgos after the cathedral, with side chapels added in the 15th and 16th centuries, when stretches of wall were pulled down to make room for them and the city's rich families paid for them. A papal bull of 1163 already names the church.
Photo: Rafa Esteve — CC BY-SA 4.0 This is one of the Mudéjar gates in the walls Burgos built in the 13th and 14th centuries, and it has survived well. Brick stands out among the stone in its courses, its corners and above all its horseshoe arch, and a master called Mahomed and a team of master masons are thought to have worked on it. The wall that runs down to it from the castle was restored as part of the hill's recovery.
Photo: FLAVIVSAETIVS — CC BY-SA 4.0 San Esteban stands on the eastern slope of the castle hill, a Gothic church begun in the last quarter of the 13th century under Alfonso X. Its neighbour was costly: the siege of the castle in 1475 and 1476 damaged the church, and the rose window was rebuilt in 1479, while the French blowing up the castle in 1813 harmed the façade and tower again. It is now the Museo del Retablo, which holds Renaissance and Baroque altarpieces from across the diocese.
Photo: Rafa Esteve — CC BY-SA 4.0 This Mudéjar gate closes the western end of the old town, at the foot of the castle hill. It was also called the Puerta Real and the Puerta Juradera: kings entered through it once they had sworn to respect the city's privileges, pilgrims left by it, and the Jewish quarter lay behind it. On the inside face of the wall, look for a horizontal mark that records the vara, the medieval Castilian yard.
Photo: Rowanwindwhistler — CC BY-SA 3.0 A small monument from 1784 marks the spot where, by tradition, the Cid's house stood, and stones from that house went into it. Two obelisks flank a console carrying the arms of Burgos and of the Cid, though the Camino del Cid site notes that no historical evidence ties his house to this spot. The same page suggests the ground may have been part of the Jewish quarter in the 13th century, which would make it the likely setting for the Cantar's scene of two sand-filled chests left as a pledge with the moneylenders Raquel and Vidas.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 Step inside to see an altarpiece carved in stone, 15.55 by 9.04 metres. Simón de Colonia and his son Francisco de Colonia made it for the merchant Gonzalo López de Polanco, who paid for it before his death in 1505, and it is the only stone altarpiece to survive from late medieval Burgos. The same Hontoria de la Cantera limestone was used to build the cathedral.
Photo: Zarateman — CC BY-SA 3.0 es The first stone was laid on 20 June 1221 in the presence of King Ferdinand III and Bishop Maurice, and the main façade follows the French Gothic of Paris and Reims. The open spires that define the skyline were added in the 15th century by Juan de Colonia, a builder from Cologne. Inside is the tomb of El Cid and his wife Doña Jimena, and since 1984 this has been the only Spanish cathedral listed by UNESCO on its own.
Photo: Rafa Esteve — CC BY-SA 4.0 This was one of the twelve gates Burgos had in the Middle Ages, and Charles V rebuilt it in the 16th century after the city's rulers backed him in the revolt of the Comuneros. Look up: Charles V stands at the top between Count Fernán González and El Cid, and below them the city's founder, Diego Rodríguez Porcelos, stands between the legendary judges of Castile, Laín Calvo and Nuño Rasura. Inside the gatehouse, open to the public, there is a large mural by the Burgos artist José Vela Zanetti.
Photo: Rafa Esteve — CC BY-SA 4.0 The museum fills the Casa de Miranda, a Renaissance house of 1545, probably by Juan de Vallejo, built for the canon Francisco de Miranda around a patio with two floors of galleries. That patio had been sold to the American magnate William Randolph Hearst and stayed in Spain only because the museum was declared a national monument. Since 2007 the museum has also kept a sword identified as the Cid's Tizona.
Photo: Emilio J. Rodríguez Posada — CC BY-SA 4.0 You end on the site of the convent of San Pablo, a leading Dominican house in Castile, whose name the bridge where you began also carries. Juan Navarro Baldeweg designed the Museum of Human Evolution that now stands here, and it opened on 13 July 2010. It draws on finds from the Sierra de Atapuerca, about 16 km away, and on its ground level stand ten lifelike reproductions of human ancestors by the sculptor Élisabeth Daynès.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0
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