New Cathedral, Salamanca

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Towers of the Old and New Cathedrals

The New Cathedral (Spanish: Catedral Nueva) of Salamanca, Spain, is, with the Old Cathedral, one of the two cathedrals of the city. It was constructed between the 16th and 18th centuries in two styles: late Gothic and Baroque. Building began in 1513 and the cathedral was consecrated in 1733. The building began at a time when the gothic style was becoming less popular and merged with the new Renaissance style, giving the resulting Plateresco style in Spain. In any case in this cathedral one did not give in completely by desire of the cathedral town hall, since this one wished a uniform temple. Thus the new cathedral was constructed, continuing with gothic the delayed one of its origins, during centuries XVII and XVIII, although already during this last century two elements were added that broke of showy form with the predominant style of the temple: a cupola barroca on the cruise and the final stages of the bell tower. The new one was constructed conserving the old one, thing that usually does not occur frequently, but the wall, leans on the North wall of the old one, reason why it had to be reinforced, towards within this one, and the tower was constructed on the old one. It is to honor in the interior the choir, some of the chapels and the decoration barroca of the cupola. Two of their main architects were J. Gil de Hontañón and his son Rodrigo from 1538.

The visible signs in the cracks and the broken windows demonstrate the devastating effects of the Lisbon Earthquake, that took place on November 1, 1755; these marks are still visible today. After the earthquake repairs were necessary: the cupola and the base of the tower were reinforced with a lining of lines of sillares, in form of a pyramid trunk that spoiled the profile primigenio of the tower (can become an idea in the profile of almost twin his, the tower of the cathedral of Segovia). At the moment this catastrophe remembers with the tradition of the "Mariquelo" on October 31. However, towards 1950, it was decided that the organ had to be sharpened. A Belgian specialist was called, who remained astonished to the knowledge that took a century without refining almost, dice her perfect state, which was due to the dry climate of the zone.