Colegiata de Santa María del Mercado (Berlanga de Duero)
The collegiate church Colegiata de Santa María del Mercado in the small town of Berlanga de Duero in the province of Soria is one of the most important church buildings in Spain in the 16th century.
history
In 1492 Don Bernardino Fernández de Velasco was awarded the title “ Duke of Frías ” by the Catholic Monarchs . After his death in 1512, the ducal dignity passed to his brother Íñigo Fernández de Velasco y Mendoza (1455–1528), who had already been married in 1480 to María de Tovar y Vivero , the last heir to the House of Tovar. Both had chosen Berlanga as the ducal family seat. As the first major construction project, a mighty late medieval castle was built on a hill near the village and surrounded by an imposing wall. However, when there was no longer any danger from external powers and defensive aspects no longer played a role, they had a ducal palace built at the foot of the castle in the style of the Renaissance . After the papal permission had already been given in 1513 to expand the existing little church of Santa María del Mercado into a collegiate church, the couple, who were elevated to Spanish grandees by Charles V in 1529, left the couple of margraves as the last testimony to their structural commitment in Berlanga over the years 1526–1530, under the direction of the architect Juan de Rasines, demolish the old church and rebuild it as a representative collegiate church.
architecture
Exterior
From the outside, the church impresses with its sheer size, due to which it still towers over the squat houses of the place by far. However, special decorative elements are missing - even the portal leading into the north transept with its mixture of late Gothic portal walls (without capitals and without figurative or vegetal decoration in the tympanum field ) and Renaissance forms in the triangular gable is kept rather simple - despite its coat of arms decoration . Originally, two west towers were probably intended for the church, which would be rather unusual for Spain - but only the tower in the northwest corner was built.
Interior
The three-aisled interior surprises with its height and its clear width, which is obstructed by a later built-in internal choir ( coro ) - an element that can be found in many important cathedral and collegiate churches in Spain (e.g. in the cathedral of Seville ) is. With its choir stalls inside, it served the canons as an area for their prayers and chants - largely sealed off from the outside. The west side of the Coro is also closed - a display wall with three altar-like fixtures shows scenes from the Passion of Christ .
The profiled ribs of the extraordinarily decoratively designed star vault grow out of the mighty round pillars , only structured by shaft rings and without capital , whose pattern in the various yokes remains largely the same, so that the uniformity of the room is underlined. The vaults in the central nave and in the side aisles are the same height, which corresponds to the architectural type of a hall church . To the right and left of the aisles there are three side chapels with altars, which were under the care of the canons and their families.
Furnishing
The furnishings of the church primarily include two Baroque retables in the central and north apse, which were not included in the original planning. The main retable is particularly impressive because of its mighty twisted columns that frame a picture with the Assumption of Mary. In a glass showcase in front of it is the late Romanesque Madonna figure of Nuestra Señora de Mercado . The smaller altar in the north apse is in the Churrigueresque style - load-bearing elements such as columns and pillars are statically or structurally obscured by repeated insertions, which, however, result in attractive decorative effects. The middle field shows a crucifix in front of a painted city background; Below lies the crucified Christ in a glass coffin - in the gable above are the instruments of Christ's passion . In a side chapel there is a ribbed late Romanesque baptismal font , which may still come from the old church.
Portal on the north side
Assumption rable with twisted ('Solomonic') columns
Crucifixion retable in Churrigueresque style
late Romanesque font
Vault
literature
- José María Martinez Frías: El Gotico en Soria. Arquitectura y escultura monumental. Publicationes de la Diputacion Provincial de Soria, 1980, ISBN 84-500-4102-3 .
- Begoña Alonso Ruiz: Arquitectura Tardogótica en Castilla: Los Rasines. Universidad de Cantabria, 2003, ISBN 84-8102-304-3 , pp. 197ff. (online at: books.google.de )
Web links
Coordinates: 41 ° 27 '53 " N , 2 ° 51' 39" W.