The St. Catherine Cathedral (Spanish: Catedral de Santa Catalina) also
called Cajamarca Cathedral. It is the main temple of the Catholic Church in
the city of Cajamarca in Peru.
Built in Baroque style it is owned by the Catholic Diocese of Cajamarca, and
was declared Cultural Heritage of the Nation in Peru in 1972.
In the seventeenth century the construction of the current building starts. In
the eighteenth century they are melted the bells of the cathedral. Since 1908
holds the rank cathedral.
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Closer panorama of the facade of St. Catherine Cathedral
In fine carved stone filigree, the Cathedral displays a sober façade of
volcanic stone in the Plateresque style, built with stones from Inca
palaces and walls.
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It has five bells in its truncated towers, cast at the beginning of
the 18th century.
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Its half-built towers and impressive façade display a veritable
explosion of Plateresque art, colonnades and arabesques, cornices and
niches, arches, Solomonic columns intertwined by large clusters of
vine leaves and a meticulous workmanship made of volcanic lava.
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The upper part has been decorated with a tapestry of large leaves.
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Panorama of the main door
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Panorama of the southern (left) door
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Detail of characters carved into the facade
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Cathedral facade seen from the south.
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Detail of the main door arch
- Notice the sculptures of the two saints on the door.
- Also notice the two angels reclining above the arch.
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Niches for statues next to the main door
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Detail of the arch of the north (right) door
- Note the sculptures of two grotesque faces on the door.
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People believed that the doorways and windows of buildings were
particularly vulnerable to the entry or passage of evil. In ancient
Greece, grotesque, satyr-like bearded faces, sometimes with the
pointed cap of the workman, were carved over the doors of ovens and
kilns, to protect the work from fire and mishap. Later, on churches
and castles, gargoyles or other grotesque faces and figures such as
sheela na gigs and hunky punks were carved to frighten away
witches and other malign influences.
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See more at
Apotropaic magic: Faces - Wikipedia.
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Interior of the Cathedral
Its interior features three imposing naves, the main one being the most
prominent, which is separated by slender arches and, above, by sober
vaults.
- It was initially built from adobe in just three days.
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The carvings on the polychrome pulpit were stolen, and have now been
replaced by imitations.
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In the naves we can admire the images of the Virgin of Carmen, the
Lord of Good Death, Saint Rose of Lima and Saint Martin de Porres.
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Altar of the Christ Child
The Christ Child was well known in Spain under the title
montañesino after the santero sculptor Juan Martínez
Montañés began the trend. These icons of the Christ Child were often
posed in the contrapposto style in which the positioning of the
knees reflected in the opposite direction, similar to ancient depictions
of the Roman Emperor.
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The images were quite popular among nobility of Spain and Portugal.
Colonial images of the Christ child also began to wear vestments, a
pious practice developed by the santero culture in later
colonial years, carrying the depiction of holding the
globus cruciger, a bird symbolizing a soul or the Holy Spirit,
or various paraphernalia related to its locality or region.
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See more at
Christ Child: During the Middle Ages - Wikipedia.
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Altar of the Crucifixion
Crucifixions and crucifixes have appeared in the arts and popular
culture from before the era of the pagan Roman Empire. The crucifixion
of Jesus has been depicted in a wide range of religious art since the
4th century CE, frequently including the appearance of mournful
onlookers such as the Virgin Mary, Pontius Pilate, and angels, as well
as antisemitic depictions portraying Jews as responsible for Christ's
death.
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As a broad generalization, the earliest depictions, before about 900,
tended to show all three crosses (those of Jesus, the Good Thief and
the Bad Thief), but later medieval depictions mostly showed just Jesus
and his cross.
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From the Renaissance either type might be shown. The number of other
figures shown depended on the size and medium of the work, but there
was a similar trend for early depictions to show a number of figures,
giving way in the High Middle Ages to just the Virgin Mary and Saint
John the Evangelist, shown standing on either side of the cross.
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See more at
Crucifixion in the arts: Western church - Wikipedia.
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Altar of the Ecce homo
Ecce homo ("behold the man") are the Latin words used by Pontius
Pilate in the Vulgate translation of the Gospel of John, when he
presents a scourged Jesus, bound and crowned with thorns, to a hostile
crowd shortly before His crucifixion (John 19:5).
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The motif of the lone figure of a suffering Christ who seems to be
staring directly at the observer, enabling him/her to personally
identify with the events of the Passion, arose in the late Middle
Ages.
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At the same time similar motifs of the Man of Sorrow and Christ at
rest increased in importance.
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The subject was used repeatedly in later so-called old master prints
(e.g. by Jacques Callot and Rembrandt), in the paintings of the
Renaissance and the Baroque, as well as in Baroque sculptures.
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See more at
Ecce homo: Western Christianity - Wikipedia.
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Altar of the Virgin of Carmel
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or Virgin of Carmel is a Roman Catholic title
of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated as patroness of the Carmelite
Order.
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In Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries, there has been
particular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, who has been adopted
as a patron saint of several places, as she has been in other
Catholic-majority countries.
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In addition, Carmen and María del Carmen have been popular given names
for girls in Spanish-speaking countries.
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An annual festival, known as Mamacha Carmen, is held in the
highland Paucartambo District, Peru, featuring a procession with the
Virgin and traditional dancers.
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See more at
Our Lady of Mount Carmel - Wikipedia.
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Chapel of Saint John the Baptist with wooden cross (bottom)
John the Baptist (c. 1st century BCE – c. 30 CE) was a Jewish preacher
active in the area of the Jordan River in the early 1st century CE.
According to the New Testament, John anticipated a messianic figure
greater than himself; in the Gospels, he is portrayed as the precursor
or forerunner of Jesus.
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Crosses, and biers holding Catholic holy images surrounded with
flowers and offerings of candles, are carried usually from one parish
church to another led by the clergy, monastic orders, or heads of the
penitential orders.
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See more at
John the Baptist - Wikipedia
and
Holy Week procession - Wikipedia.
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Saint Rose of Lima and Saint Martin de Porres
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Rose of Lima, TOSD (born Isabel Flores de Oliva; 20 April 1586 – 24
August 1617) (Spanish: Rosa de Lima) was a member of the Third
Order of Saint Dominic in Lima, Peru, who became known for both her
life of severe penance and her care of the poverty stricken of the
city through her own private efforts.
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Martín de Porres Velázquez OP (9 December 1579 – 3 November 1639) was
a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order who was beatified in
1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He
is the patron saint of mixed-race people, barbers, innkeepers, public
health workers, all those seeking racial harmony, and animals.
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See more at
Rose of Lima - Wikipedia
and
Martin de Porres - Wikipedia.
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Carmelite altar
Below on the left is Saint John of the Cross, and below on the right is
Saint Joaquina of Vedruna, founder of the Carmelite Order.
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St. John of the Cross OCD (Spanish: Juan de la Cruz; born Juan de
Yepes y Álvarez; 24 June 1542 – 14 December 1591) was a Spanish
Catholic priest, mystic, and Carmelite friar of converso origin. He is
a major figure of the Counter-Reformation in Spain, and he is one of
the thirty-seven Doctors of the Church.
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Joaquina Vedruna de Mas (or Joaquima in Catalan) (16 April 1783
– 28 August 1854) - born Joaquima de Vedruna Vidal de Mas, religious
name Joaquina of Saint Francis of Assisi - was a Spanish religious
sister and the founder of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity. Her
canonisation was celebrated on 12 April 1959.
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See more at
John of the Cross - Wikipedia
and
Joaquina Vedruna de Mas - Wikipedia.
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Altar of Our Lady of Sorrows
Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother
of Sorrows (Latin: Mater Dolorosa), and Our Lady of Piety, Our
Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names by
which Mary, mother of Jesus, is referred to in relation to sorrows in
life. As Mater Dolorosa, it is also a key subject for Marian art
in the Catholic Church.
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Our Lady of Sorrows, depicted as "Mater Dolorosa" (Mother of
Sorrows) has been the subject of some key works of Catholic Marian
art. Mater Dolorosa is one of the three common artistic
representations of a sorrowful Virgin Mary, the other two being
Stabat Mater and the Pietà.
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In this iconography, Our Lady of Seven Sorrows is at times simply
represented in a sad and anguished mode by herself, her expression
being that of tears and sadness. In other representations the Virgin
Mary is depicted with seven swords in her heart, a reference to the
prophecy of Simeon at the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. The
type dates from the latter part of the 15th century.
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See more at
Our Lady of Sorrows - Wikipedia.
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Altar of the Nativity of Jesus with two angels
The artistic depiction of the nativity has been an important subject for
Christian artists since the 4th century.
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Artistic depictions of the nativity scene since the 13th century have
emphasized the humility of Jesus and promoted a more tender image of
him, a major change from the early "Lord and Master" image, mirroring
changes in the common approaches taken by Christian pastoral ministry
during the same era.
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See more at
Nativity of Jesus - Wikipedia.
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Main altar
Catherine of Alexandria, also spelled Katherine, is, according to
tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early
4th century at the hands of the emperor Maxentius.
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According to her hagiography, she was both a princess and a noted
scholar who became a Christian around age 14, converted hundreds of
people to Christianity, and was martyred around age 18.
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Countless images of Saint Catherine are depicted in art, especially in
the late Middle Ages, which is also the time that the account of Saint
Catherine's Mystical Marriage makes its first literary appearance.
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She can usually be easily recognised as she is richly dressed and
crowned, as befits her rank as a princess, and often holds or stands
next to a segment of her wheel as an attribute. She also often carries
either a martyr's palm or the sword with which she was actually
executed. She often has long unbound blonde or reddish hair (unbound
as she is unmarried).
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The vision of Saint Catherine of Alexandria usually shows the Infant
Christ, held by the Virgin, placing a ring (one of her attributes) on
her finger, following some literary accounts, although in the version
in the Golden Legend he appears to be adult, and the marriage takes
place among a great crowd of angels and "all the celestial court", and
these may also be shown.
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More than 1,100 years after Catherine's martyrdom, Joan of Arc
identified her as one of the saints who appeared to and counselled
her.
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See more at
Catherine of Alexandria - Wikipedia.
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Chapel of the Tabernacle
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Chapel of the Tabernacle (Capilla del Sagrario)
The Chapel of the Tabernacle is located to the north (right) of the
Cathedral.
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Interior of the Chapel of the Tabernacle
A tabernacle or a sacrament house is a fixed, locked box in which the
Eucharist (consecrated communion hosts) is stored as part of the
"reserved sacrament" rite.
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Some Christian denominations believe that the Eucharist contains the
real presence of Jesus, and thus use the term tabernacle, a
word referring to the Old Testament tabernacle, which was the locus of
God's presence among the Jewish people.
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The "reserved Eucharist" is secured in the tabernacle for distribution
at services, for use when bringing Holy Communion to the sick, and, in
the Western Church, as a focal point for reflection, meditation and
prayer.
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See more at
Church tabernacle - Wikipedia.
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See also
Source
Location
