Talk:Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

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[edit] Botafumeiro

After some investigation on the web, I have found accounts that the Botafumeiro is made of "silver brass", or silver-plated brass. I have also seen some pictures where the Botafumeiro is clearly silver colored, and others were it is clearly golden colored (from reflections?). For example, a picture purported to be of the Botafumeiro in the library is found at:

Also, I have found some accounts that the Botafumeiro weighs 58 Kg, and others that it weighs 80 Kg. Given that a physics study of the Botafumeiro quotes 80Kg, I think that this might be more accurate. I have also seen varying quotes of the height of the Botafumeiro, from 1.6 m to 2 meters or so. Another question: When is the Botafumeiro employed? Some accounts claim it is used only on special occasions, but some foreign language sites imply that it swings daily at 12 noon. What is the truth? Does anyone know the connection of the Road Rally of the same name and the restaurant of the same name to the censer? --Filll 18:35, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

As to the height, 1.60 m seems much closer to reality than 2 m if you look at this picture of a tiraboleiro and the botufeiro and try to compare their lengths :

[1] JoJan 19:38, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reply to Filll

I too was puzzled by the same question and the seeming contradictions. I think the solution comes from the fact that there seems to be at least two of these censors in existence at Santiago de Compostela. There is the famous one (the Botafumeiro) which is stored at the Library (is it the Cathedral Library?), which is only used on special occasions. There is also at least one regular thurible which is used the rest of the time (daily?). The regular one seems to be more silver in colour, whereas the Botafumeiro is the more golden looking one (although it is plated with silver). I think if you want to see the famous Botafumeiro, you have to be there on a special occasion though, but you can attend the service any day at noon to see the ceremony with the regular one. See Botafumeiro page, where I quote:-

"There is another large thurible used in the other masses carried out in the cathedral, called "La Alcachofa" (literally, "The Artichoke")[6] or "La Repollo" (literally, "The Cabbage").[7] La Alcachofa is a silver-colored metal censer. It was created in 1971 by the sacred art artisans working under the craftsman Luis Molina Acedo."

I hope this helps.

However, this same Botafumeiro Wikipedia page also claims that it is only the second largest in the world, whereas the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela page claims it is the largest. One of these pages is clearly wrong and needs correcting. I've made a note in the Cathedral Wikipedia text to flag this, but someone with more knowledge on this can look into this and make the judgement. The largest is from Germany apparently, and size and weight is listed, which makes me believe it is real, but needs the sources checking for accuracy before this cathedral page is updated.

Mike 80.229.144.242 (talk) 23:18, 15 January 2008 (UTC)