11/16: Madrid's Domed Basilica & Columned Crypt

 After touring the really enjoyable Sorolla Museum, we traveled by metro to the Basilica Real de San Francisco which involved two transfers. Steven, the great navigator that he is, was a pro managing that without any problems! I smiled when we saw a print of one of Sorolla's paintings in one of the stations.

The cost per metro ride was $1.75, almost ten times the price we'd paid several weeks earlier in Tashkent and Almaty in Central Asia. But the service was much better with snazzy cars and service every five minutes.

It wasn't hard to figure out that this was the Opera Station stop judging from all the opera photos adorning the walls!

It was great seeing no graffiti in any of the metro stations and that they even had charging stations in many of them. It was sure convenient having message boards indicating when the next train would be coming, too.

Lil Red: Some of the ceilings in the metro stations were so low, even we could touch them. We felt like we should lower our heads just in case!

The history of the basilica, dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels but generally known as St. Francis the Great, dates back to the time of St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226). According to tradition, the saint came to Spain about the year 1214 on a pilgrimage and built a small temple on this spot. It was destroyed in 1760, however, so a new and even more beautiful church could be built. The temple once functioned as the national resting place for the remains of famous artists and politicians. 

The basilica certainly had the 'wow factor' when we walked in. The 108 ft-diameter dome, just a little smaller than the dome at St Peter's in Rome, was absolutely beautiful and was painted by Francisco Goya. The dome was bigger than the Invalides in Paris, St. Paul's in London (a church we hope to see in October). It was exceeded by domes in the two great churches in Rome. Someone described the dome being as beautiful as the Sistine Chapel but without the crowds. I don't know if that's the case having not been yet to Rome, but I can't imagine any being more spectacular.

The paintings in the eight sections in the cupola endeavored to symbolize Glory, depicted by angels and saints paying homage to the queen, the Virgin of the Angels, to whom the church was also dedicated.

At the base of each section, an artist painted small figures on wood of the twelve apostles.

The painting above the altar was also done by Goya.

Maybe the painting above this altar was by Goya - not sure which one!

There were many chapels in the round nave of the basilica, each closed by a massive grill and pitch black unless a tour was in progress. The altar in this chapel was built in 1860 in the Renaissance style of carved marble with finely gilded reliefs.

At the back of the chapel were four evangelists modeled in wood and another product to closely resemble bronze. Each figure was eight foot high and rested on pedestals of white-veined black marble.

Another dome well worth craning my head for!

The principle Chapel had two Renaissance pulpits of carved white marble beneath the main arch. The chapel was lavishly decorated with seven steps leading to the high chancel and two white marble balustrades with gilded capitals or topmost part.

The Cloister, more like a gallery than any of the other cloisters we'd seen before this, was just behind by the High Altar and contained 49 massive paintings from the 17th to 19th centuries, most of which referred to the life of St. Francis.

The highlights included a painting by Francisco Zurbarán, and another by Francisco Pacheco, the father-in-law and teacher of the other great Spanish painter Velazquez. 

The Ante-Sacristy was an almost square room with very decorative oak, walnut and mahogany floors. The 17th century benches were surmounted by coats of arms with figures of eagles and crowned lions.

The exquisitely carved doors displayed impressionist motifs of the Resurrection of the Dead and of The Last Judgement.

The Sacristy was an arched rectangular room with twelve paintings of the apostles and high-backed benches similar to those in the Ante-Sacristy on one side. On the other side were large chests holding priestly vestments. Some of the murals in the basilica were the inspiration for artwork in the Prado Museum we'd seen a couple of days ago.

The floors were again stunning, I thought.

We overheard a guide explain that bells in the towers, cast in London in 1882, ring three times daily and also play extracts of the national hymn every fifteen minutes. The basilica had an amazing history, fantastic art in the basilica itself and, apparently, a large number of paintings that are there 'in storage' for the Louvre. It was so worth the extra effort reaching the basilica to see such a fabulous place of worship.

Back in the center of Madrid, we returned to the Madrid's very modern Almudena Cathedral to visit its Crypt that we didn't have time to see previously. We'd been lucky enough to visit plenty of crypts elsewhere but, from the moment we entered, it was apparent this one would be far different. We felt like we'd walked into a grand Romanesque church, not a place of gloom and doom one normally associates with a crypt.

The crypt had more than 400 columns, each one with an unique capital.

There were an astounding twenty chapels in the crypt with artwork by distinguished Spanish sculptors.  

One of the crypt's treasures was the image of Our Lady of the Flor de Lis. Research suggested that it was commissioned by King Alfonso VI in 1083, which made it one of the oldest images in Madrid.

The stunning stained glass windows that illuminated the chapels represented some of the most beautiful work of this kind in all of Madrid.

We were surprised at how very new some of the tombs were and wondered how people 'qualified' to be interred in the crypt. One was from just 2015.

Some of the graves had flowers on them so we had to very wary of walking and not tip over the vases.

This was the only non-marble grave we noticed in the crypt.

We were so glad we'd taken the time to stop at the crypt this time as it was by far the most exquisite one we'd ever seen. I'd certainly expected something somber and it was such a relief when it was anything but.

 Next post: Museo Cerralbo, a 19th century palace belonging to a marquis!

Posted on January 19th, 2019, from our home in the Denver suburbs.