Friday, September 29, 2017

Cusco and the Cathedral - Virgin of the Assumption, Sagrada Familia, the Triumph, Incas

The Cathedral of Cusco-A mixture of styles and architectural richness

The whole is superb and it can be said that the Cuzco Cathedral is one of the most beautiful and significant monuments of America. Their proportions have a single amplitude. Its towers are separated, open more than admitted in any Western example, as to give greater front and seat to that first temple of Spain in the capital of the Incas.
(Héctor Velarde, Peruvian Architecture, 1946).


A cathedral is a Christian temple, where the bishop's seat or chair is, is the main church of each diocese. The seat or episcopal chair is the place from where each bishop presides over the Christian community. The Orthodox Church calls them Cathedrals or Great Churches.

During the first centuries of Christianity and the Middle Ages (centuries IV to XI) cathedrals were not different from other centers of worship; from the XI century they acquire a configuration and dimensions that differentiate them from the other temples. In the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, coinciding with the rise of Gothic art, cathedrals, in addition to being episcopal headquarters, reflect the prestige of the cities where they were built, generated a competition to build grandiose and monumental buildings.





In Cusco, Spanish influence is shown in religion and the construction of cathedrals. The Cathedral of Cusco or Cathedral Basilica of the Virgin of the Assumption is the main temple of the city of Cusco; at the sides are the temples of Triumph and the Holy Family. The complex occupies an area of ​​3,956 mt2. It is the most important religious monument of the Historic Center of Cuzco



The Cathedral of Cuzco is the result of several styles of architects. The first cathedral, the Church of Triumph was built in 1539 on the foundations of the palace of Viracocha Inca. It is currently an auxiliary chapel of the Cathedral. The Cathedral Basilica was built between 1560 and 1664. Part of the building material were red granite blocks of the Sacsayhuaman fortress. The image of the Lord of Tremors is venerated in the cathedral. The Temple of the Holy Family was built in 1723.



The cathedral has outstanding examples of colonial goldsmithery; also houses canvases of the famous Cuzco School of Painting, the most important in Colonial America. The Cathedral of Cuzco is of rectangular plan of the basilical type with three ships: nave of the epistle, ship of the gospel and the central nave, coincident with the three doors of the facade.




References
Catedral

Catedral basílica de la Virgen de la Asunción (Cuzco)

LA CATEDRAL DE LA CIUDAD DE CUSCO