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
