Coro and Trascoro

Coro and Trascoro the Cathedral of Toledo

Coro and Trascoro are terms from the architectural history of Spain ; they denote a so-called "inner choir" or its mostly richly designed back and can be found in many Spanish cathedrals and collegiate churches during the late Gothic and Renaissance periods .

background

Floor plan of Seville Cathedral

While central and northern European mainline churches usually have a strong Vierungsbereich with adjoining transept and far hinausgezogenem east choir feature, this is the Spanish buildings of the late and Nachgotik not usually the case - here send the naves almost abruptly at the rear altar wall or in the apses . This is mainly due to the fact that the southern Spanish cathedrals were usually built on the foundations of the former main mosques of the cities - these had a strictly rectangular floor plan both inside and out; the mihrab niche was integrated into the rear wall and was hardly or not at all visible to the outside. The mosque buildings of the Almohads also had no pronounced crossing; The middle and transepts (if these terms can be used at all) were only slightly wider than the other ships - there was no structural differentiation. The Christian conquerors of Andalusia adapted to the architectural and taste requirements of their predecessors and largely dispensed with cruciform floor plans with elongated choir areas in their new, large sacred buildings.

Nevertheless, a structural solution had to be found for the assembly of the canons . This consisted of moving the choir stalls (sillería) into the interior of the church, placing them in the middle of the nave and delimiting them from the outside with walls richly decorated with figures and ornamental decorations - such a component is called a coro in Spanish . At first such a coro was open on the two narrow sides so that other churchgoers could pass through the rows of seats of the canons, which of course was not desired; only in a later phase was its west wall closed by a richly decorated and often provided with a further altar front side - this is called Trascoro (German about "back of the coro"). In a final phase (often not until the 17th or 18th century) the east side of the Coro was also delimited by an artistically forged iron grille (reja) , which, although it allowed a view of what was happening on the main altar, nevertheless enhanced the Coro's exclusivity .

Dating

Trascoro in Barcelona Cathedral

So far no attempt has been made to list the 50 or so Coros of Spain, to date them and to put them in a chronological order. "Internal choirs" appear almost suddenly in the late Gothic period , i. H. in the period around 1400 (e.g. Barcelona Cathedral , where the choir stalls are much older than the Trascoro wall); they flourished in the Renaissance ; H. in the 16th century, and were no longer built in the following century. During this period, several Gothic cathedrals in northern Spain (e.g. Burgos , León and Toledo ) that had already been largely completed received additional Coro fixtures. Very few cathedrals in Spain remained without an "inner choir" (e.g. that of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela , the unfinished Cathedral of Valladolid , the Cathedral of Valencia or the Almudena, which began in the 18th century but was not completed until 1993 -Cathedral of Madrid ).

The Capilla Mayor, built into the Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba from 1521 (often imprecisely referred to as a "church" or "cathedral") corresponds to a coro in architectural terms .

Artistic arrangement

Even if they may sometimes seem like a foreign body to the faithful and visitors of a Spanish cathedral, Coro and Trascoro form a kind of jewelery box inside a cathedral and are usually extraordinarily richly designed. The wooden choir stalls and the wrought iron barriers also deserve attention. In later times organs were often placed on the side walls of the coro .