Sigüenza

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Siguenza (in Latin Segontia) is a city in the province of Guadalajara in Spain.

1 City history and sights
2 Main sights
3 University of Siguënza
4 See also
5 Sources and references

[edit] City history and sights

For the ecclesiastical history, see bishopric of Siguenza

The site of the ancient Segoncia, now called Villavieja 'old town', is at half a league distant from the present Sigüenza; Livy speaks of the town in treating of the wars of Cato with the Celtiberians.

It was under Roman, Visigothic, Moorish and Castilian rule. Sigüenza took a large part in the civil wars of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The fortress palace of the bishops was captured in 1297 by the partisans of the Infantes de la Cerda, and in 1355 it was the prison of the unhappy Blanche of Bourbon, consort of Pedro the Cruel. In 1465 Diego López of Madrid, having usurped the mitre, fortified himself there.

[edit] Main sights

The cathedral is a very massive Gothic edifice of ashlar stone. Its façade has three doors, with a railed court in front. At the sides rise two square towers, 164 feet high, with merlons topped with large balls; these towers are connected by a balustrade which crowns the facade, the work of Bishop Herrera in the eighteenth century. The interior is divided into three Gothic naves. The main choir begins in the transept with a Renaissance altar built by order of Bishop Mateo de Burgos. In the transept is the Chapel of St. Librada, the female patron saint of the city, with a splendid reredos and the relics of the saint, all constructed at the expense of Bishop Fadrique de Portugal, who is buried there. What is now the Chapel of St. Catherine was dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury by the English Bishop Jocelin, who came with Queen Leonora. Cardinal Mendoza is interred in the main choir. Beyond the choir proper, which is situated in the centre, there is the sumptuous altar of Nuestra Señora la Mayor.

Connected with the cathedral is a beautiful Florid Gothic cloister, the work of Bernardino de Carvajal. The rich tabernacle, with its golden monstrance, was given by Cardinal Mendoza. The chapter house contains many excellent paintings. It is not known with any certainty at what period this church was begun, though it appears to date from the end of the twelfth century. The image of Nuestra Señora la Mayor, to whom the church is dedicated, dates from the end of the twelfth century; it was taken to the retro-choir in the fifteenth century, the Assumption being substituted for it on the high altar.

The Conciliar Seminary of San Bartolomé is due to Bishop Bartolomé Santos de Risoba (1651). There is a smaller seminary, that of the Immaculate Conception, and a college. The College of San Antonio el Grande is a beautiful building. It was formerly a university (see below), founded in 1476 by the wealthy Juan López de Medina, archdeacon of Almázán, but its prosperity was hindered by the foundation of the University of Alcalá; in 1770 it was reduced to a few chairs of philosophy and theology, till it was suppressed in 1837.

Worthy of mention are the ancient hermitage of Nuestra Señora, which according to tradition was originally the pro-cathedral; the Humilladero, a small Gothic hermitage; the Churrigueresque convent of the Franciscans; the modern convent the Ursulines, which was formerly the home of the choir boys; the hospital of the military barracks; and the Hieronymite college.

[edit] University of Siguënza

The building of the College of San Antonio Portaceli of Sigüenza, Spain, which was later transformed into a university, was begun in 1476. Its founder was Don Juan López de Medina, archdeacon of Almázán, canon of Toledo and vicar-general of Sigüenza. The Papal Bull ratifying the foundation, approving the benefices etc., was granted by Sixtus IV in 1483, and courses were opened in theology, canon law and the liberal arts. By a Bull of Innocent VIII in 1489, the university was created, with powers to confer the degrees of bachelor, licentiate and doctor; the college was thus transformed into a university. A Bull issued by pope Paul III extended the course in theology, and during the rectorate of Maestro Velosillo the chairs of physics were created, while a Bull of Pope Julius II established the faculties of secular law and of medicine.

Among the professors were the mathematician and theologian Pedro Ciruelo, who enhanced the prestige of the university as a centre of learning; Don Franciseo Delgado, Bishop of Lugo and rector, under whom the university reached its period of greatest splendour; Don Fernando Velosillo, rector and professor, was sent by king Philip II of Spain to the Council of Trent; also present at that council were, as theologians, Don Antonio Torres, first Bishop of the Canary Islands, and Senor Torro, both professors of this university; Don Pedro Guerrero, Archbishop of Granada; the famous Cuesta; Tricio and Francisco Alvarez, Bishop of Sigüenza. Thus evidently the influence of the University of Sigüenza in the Spanish Catholic church and kingdom was considerable in the last years of the fifteenth century and the first years of the sixteenth; thereafter it fell into decay. It was suppressed in 1837.