Sunday morning dawned damp and
grey, but our spirits were high and we were glad to be back in Burgos.
Originally, when I was planning our trip, I had hoped that we could get from
Dublin back to Belorado in one day to continue the Camino where we had finished
last time, however the Aer Lingus flight arrived in Bilbao one hour too late
for us to be able to get to Burgos in time to catch the last bus to Belorado.
This meant we had to stay overnight in Burgos and then take the bus the next
day. In addition, because it was a Sunday, the bus service to Belorado was
reduced and the first bus would not be until 14.00. No matter – things work out
for the best; we had already had the blessing of the Festival of El Cid and I
had a plan for spending the morning in Burgos in an interesting manner!
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| Santa Maria la Real de Huelgas |
I was keen to see the
Cistercian Abbey of Santa María de Real
de Huelgas – the abbey which was the royal mausoleum of the kings of
Castille lies about 1 km from the cathedral on the south western outskirts of
Burgos city centre. I discovered that on Sunday mornings it opened for tours at
10.00am. Having already seen the royal mausoleum of the kings of Navarre at
Najera, this important place linked to the history of the Camino was a must-see
site for me, and if we visited it on Sunday morning, then it would save us
having to hang around half the morning until 10.00am when we walked nearby again
on Day Three of our trip.
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| David & Matthew at Arco San Juan |
We gladly left the nicotine
infused atmosphere of our hostel room behind and wandered back into the old
city centre through the Arco San Juan, past the Cathedral, finding a place for
a breakfast of tortilla potata and café con leche in a stylish bar frequented
by locals on Lain Calvo.
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| Walking into Burgos |
Afterwards, we left our bags
in the lockers at Burgos bus station (stopping to admire the rather humourous
toilet signs which I hadn’t noticed back in March!) and then made our way along
the pleasant tree-lined walk beside the rio Arlanzón, fallen chestnuts
crunching underfoot, before we crossed over the river on the Puente Malatos –
the same bridge medieval pilgrims would have crossed the river when saying a
final goodbye to Burgos. The gentle walk to Santa María from the bus station
took us about thirty minutes.
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| Bus Station toilets! |
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| Burgos Cathedral |
Santa María de Real de Huelgas
was signposted down a long street beside Parc El Parral. We noticed for what
would not be the last time on this trip, that the abbey did not seem to be located
anywhere near where it was marked on the map of Burgos in John Brierley's
Camino de Santiago guidebook. We have found the guidebook excellent many ways
and the maps of the actual Camino route seem to be spot on, but we have come to
realise that the urban maps are not necessarily to be trusted and the place
that you are looking for can be some distance to where it is, apparently
arbitrarily, marked on the map!
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| The tree-lined path beside the rio Arlanzon |
We reached the abbey
enclosure, which though presumably once in open countryside, now appears to be
surrounded by pleasant enough 19th Century suburbs. The rather long
name of the abbey basically means “The
Royal Abbey of Saint Mary on the grazing area for cattle that are not used to
work the land” because although “huelgas”
means “labour strike” in modern
Spanish, it referred to cattle that were de
huelgo or idle that is non-
working, in medieval times. The abbey is still a possession of the Spanish
Crown today.
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| Las Huelgas Inner Courtyard |
Alfonso VIII (1156 – 1214)
founded it in 1187 at the request of his wife, Queen Eleanor Plantagenet. In
1199 it was formally handed over to the Cistercian Order as a convent with the
clause that it would become the royal pantheon for Alfonso and his successors.
Ferdinand III (1219), his son
Alfonso X, Prince Edward (later Edward I of England) (1255), Alfonso XI (1331)
Henry II (1356) and John I (1379) were all crowned and knighted here. It is
also interesting to note that the abbey of Cañas that David and I visited in
March eventually came under the jurisdiction of the abbey and the abbess of
Santa María eventually came to exercise ecclesiastical, civil and criminal
jurisdiction over its estates which ran to about sixty four villages. Very
unusually for a woman, it is also said that for a time the Abbess could even
hear Confession and administer the Sacraments.
At the same time that Alfonso
VIII founded the abbey, he also established the King’s Hospital nearby for
pilgrims walking the Way of St. James, but I shall return to that in a later
blog when we are walking out of Burgos.
We made our way into the abbey
enclosure through a gateway (which apparently was the birthplace in 1334 for a
later Castillian king with the sinister name of Pedro I “the Cruel”). This led
into the Inner Court – a large courtyard where the ticket office was situated and
which was surprisingly full of tourists. It seemed that Sunday mornings were a
favoured time to do a spot of heritage tourism in Spain! Entrance to the abbey
was by timed guided tour only and we had happily arrived at just the right
moment to join one and also get our credencials stamped.
The tour was conducted in
Spanish (as I would expect) but unfortunately, unlike the tour David and I did
of San Millán de Yuso, there were no useful information boards in other
languages, so I had to guess what I was looking at and then read up on it later
in the guidebook.
I was also extremely miffed to
discover that tourists were not allowed to take photographs inside the abbey
buildings, apparently out of respect for the nuns who still live there (certain
parts of the abbey were off limits to vsitors). This was a great blow as there
were so many interesting things to photograph. However, when I got home, I
found the excellent website www.paradoxplace.com written by Adrian Fletcher which I highly recommend.
Adrian has a wealth of interesting pictures which he took himself inside Santa
Maria in 2006 and when I emailed him, he kindly gave me permission to use any
that I wanted in my blog and stated that when he visited the abbey, photographs
inside were allowed. Maybe the nuns were less holy back then??
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| Side Colonnade of Church |
The tour began in the side
colonnade of the abbey church and we were led by the north transept to the high
altar. Five chapels opened onto the crossing, an arrangement which apparently
is typical of Cistercian churches and was based on the original founding abbey
church at Cîteaux and put me in mind of the similar layout of the chapels in the
ruins of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, which I have visited many times and which
has seven chapels. Of particular note was a gilded iron pulpit which can be
swung in front of the gateway into the nave, so that it can be seen by seen by
the nuns worshipping in the choir at the west end of the church.
The tour now led into the
north aisle of the church. Known as St. Catherine’s aisle or the Gospel aisle,
this area has been enclosed and contains sixteen royal tombs, all of them
consisting of rectangular stone coffins with sloping lids that rest on eagle or
lion shaped supports. Some of the tombs were elaborately decorated. A much
later raised timber floor gives some of the tombs a slightly sunken appearance
as if the tide has risen around them and is lapping at the stone lions.
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Hinged pulpit
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Most prominent amongst the
tombs is that of Don Alfonso de la Cerda (died 1333) in the centre of the room,
which is covered in a pattern of octagons containing the lions and castles of
Castille and Leon, the spaces between are filled with fleurs-de-lis, as Don
Alfonso’s mother was daughter of King (St.) Louis IX of France. The tomb
however, did not always stand in the middle of the room, but was once placed in
front of that of Don Alfonso’s father, Don Fernando de la Cerda. This second tomb
is set into a niche in the wall in the corner of the room. Over it is an
elaborate gothic arch with decorated mouldings of bunches of grapes, vine
leaves and more lions and castles. Inside the arch a carving of the crucifixion
is displayed with a painting of Jerusalem in the background. Don Fernando
himself was the son and heir of Alfonso X and died in 1275 aged only 21 years
old.
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Tomb of Alfonso de la Cerda
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We moved on into the nave of
the church, where on a stone plinth, is displayed the double tomb of Alfonso
VIII and his Queen, Eleanor of England. I had been particularly interested to
see this tomb as it has important links with British history. Alfonso’s side of
the tomb is covered with reliefs of castles spanned by trefoil arches and
Eleanor’s with the pointed shield and three heraldic lions of the Plantagenets.
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The royal tomb of Alfonso VIII & Eleanor of England
©Adrian Fletcher
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The connection of the abbey
with British history does not end there however, as it was Alfonso and
Eleanor’s great-granddaughter, known to history as Eleanor of Castille (I hope
you are keeping up with all these Eleanors!!?) who was married to the future
English king Edward I, in Las Huelgas on 1st November 1254. By all
accounts Edward (when he wasn’t trying to conquer Wales and Scotland!) and
Eleanor had a very happy marriage, travelled everywhere together and unusually
amongst medieval English kings, Edward appears to have had no mistresses or
children outside wedlock.
This second royal Anglo-Spanish
marriage interests me personally. As a Podiatry student, I travelled to England
to I train in the large market town of Northampton, where I spent three very
happy years and met my own wife. Just outside the town at Hardingstone, is one
of three surviving medieval Eleanor Crosses. Another, the best preserved of the
three stands in the Northamptonshire village of Geddington, near the home of
some friends of mine. The background to the crosses is that in 1290, aged 49
and after 36 years of marriage, Eleanor of Castille died at Harby in
Nottinghamshire. Her body was taken to Lincoln, seven miles away and embalmed.
Her viscera was buried in Lincoln cathedral where a tomb stands to this day (her
heart was also buried at Blackfriars Dominican Priory in London alongside her
son Alfonso). A great funeral procession then wound its way in great state from
Lincoln to Westminister Abbey in London. The journey took twelve days and where
the coffin stopped each night, Edward ordered elaborate stone “Eleanor Crosses”
to be erected, the most famous of which was Charing Cross in London. The
crosses were probably intended to encourage passers-by to pray for the Queen’s
soul and survive as a testimony to Edward and Eleanor’s love, which started
here at Las Huelgas.
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Northampton Eleanor Cross
© Steve Daniels
http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/11/34/3113402_852a817d.jpg |
But I digress! Returning to
the tour, we moved on to St. Ferdinand’s cloister and I was very interested to
note that the barrel vaults still have extensive areas of surviving Mudéjar
plasterwork. The term Mudéjar comes
from the Arabic Mudajjan meaning
“tamed” or “domesticated” and refers to Muslims or Moors from the Muslim
Caliphate of Al-Andalus or its successor states who remained in Spain after the
Christian Kingdoms reconquered these areas and did not convert to Christianity.
They are distinguished from Moriscos who
were Muslims who converted and Mozarabs who
were Christians who lived under Muslim rule in Al-Andalus (we saw Mozarab
architecture back at the monastery of San Millán de Suso). Initially granted
protected religious and cultural freedoms, the Mudéjar, Moriscos and Jews were
progressively expelled from Spain as the atmosphere of tolerance evaporated
with the rise of the Spanish Inquisition. The Mudéjar plasterwork on the
cloister vaults dates from between 1240 – 1260 and includes Persian peacocks,
vegetative patterns and Kufic inscriptions. Originally it would have been
painted and must have made a very striking impression when first created.
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St. Ferdinand's Cloister
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The Chapter House
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| Las Claustrillas |
Matthew has a very tiny area
of his brain allocated to history (with much larger areas for Birds of Prey and
Rugby!) with the result that whilst I was in my element sucking the historical
marrow from the Las Huelgas bones, he was beginning to lose the will to live by
the time we reached the cloister and gave me a look, that from my experience,
could in theory portend some form of violence if the tour did not come to an
end fairly shortly! His mood was not enhanced by the fact that the tour was in
Spanish and whereas I was enjoying working out historical connections from the
occasional word that I grasped, Matthew bycontrast was becoming very
frustrated.
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Matthew - "When are we finally leaving this flipping abbey?"
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Luckily for my health and
general well-being the tour was nearly finished! There were however two other
areas in the abbey to visit which I found very special. The first was the
Chapel of St. James. Walking out into the kitchen garden we entered the chapel
which sits as a separate building. Inside, the east end has an extraordinary Mudéjar
high ceiling panel which rose up above our heads through more elaborate
plasterwork containing epigraphic inscriptions, interlaced figures and castles,
to a polychrome area (red predominated) decorated with a multitude of stars. I was
entranced by the unexpected richness of the decoration.
The chapel itself also
contains the statue of a seated St. James brandishing a sword on a movable arm.
According to tradition, during a ceremony in the chapel, kings were touched on
the shoulder with this statue to “knight” them.
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Mudéjar plasterwork in Chapel of St. James
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Mudéjar ceiling
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| Las Huelgas Kitchen Garden & Orchard |
Particularly special were the
artefacts taken from Don Fernando de la Cerda’s tomb – his birrette or cylindrical cap with lions and castles picked out in
tiny pearls with bands of gold at the top and bottom, his pellote or fur lined surcoat, with large slits for the shoulders
and made from gold cloth, his spectacular ring, sword belt, sword and spurs.
Nearby was the bejewelled gold Cross of Navas
de Tolosa, said to be have been carried into battle against the Moors by
Don Alfonso de la Cerda. I felt I had stepped into the world of Narnia
inhabited by bejewelled medieval kings dressed in fine robes riding on fine
steeds. But these were real surviving relics from the medieval age, nit some
modern re-imagined reconstruction in a novel! How rare to get a glimpse into
the colour, fabric and clothing of a medieval European Court. I was struck by
the sophistication and vibrant colour of what we saw, which contrasts with the
sometimes primitive impression of the medieval world that we sometimes get when
we visit the skeleton of some draughty semi-ruined castle. I also mused about
the wonderful things that must have been looted by Napoleon’s soldiers and lost
forever if Don Fernando’s tomb was anything to go by? What treasures must have
been in Alfonso VIII and Eleanor Plantagenet’s tomb for example?
A final extraordinary treat
for me was viweing the Navas De Tolosa
Standard in it’s own case. This is believed to have belonged to the tent of
Sultan Al-Nasir who was defeated by Alfonso VIII at the battle of Navas de
Tolosa in 1212. The tapestry measure 3.30m x 2.20m and is woven in brightly
coloured silks and silver thread. To quote the Las Huelgas Guidebook
“The central compositional motif is an eight-pointed
sta rinside a wreath of stars and circles, which is in turn framed by a broad
square bearing Kufic inscriptions with interlaced stars at the corners. The
upper part of the tapestry comprises three superimposed strips. The broadest
one contains a quote from the Koran. The bottom of the standard contains eight
circles with Kufic inscriptions: “Only God is God and Muhammad his prophet”,
“The eternal empire”, “perpetual happiness”, “perpetual saviour”, “perpetual
salvation” etc.”
Talking of Kufic inscriptions
I couldn’t help wondering if the Mudéjar craftsmen were having a secret laugh
at one Princess’s expense as on the pillow of Doña Berenguela is the Kufic
inscription “There is no other divinity
but Allah” – a strange thing to find in the tomb of a medieval Christian
princess! Maybe the artistic designs of Kufic inscriptions were popular in the
Royal Court and a blind eye was turned to what they might mean!
Whilst I was pondering these
interesting things I became aware that David and Matthew had long departed and
going back out into the Inner Court, I found David talking to a Canadian
pilgrim and Matthew looking in a pensive mood of total despair due to a surfeit
of Alfonsos and Eleanors! Collecting David, I marshalled Matthew towards a
nearby café and we revived him with chocolate
caliente; that wonderful thick, viscous hot chocolate that the Spanish and
Italians specialise in and which my children call “Chocolate soup” ever since a
holiday in Florence.
Thus fortified, we made our
way back into Burgos, had some Rioja and pintxos (hardly necessary after the
chocolate, but what the heck!) and then returned to the bus station ready for
the trip to Belorado.
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