Blown Away

Today, I closed down one of Salamanca´s major tourist attractions. But more on that later. I began the day with another trip to Salamanca´s two cathedrals because yesterday, the older of the two wasn´t fully open to the public. Cathedral Vieja was begun in the late 1100s as a Romanesque church, but it was completed about 100 years later at the beginning of Gothic influence; thus, it offers an interesting fusion of forms. The lower part of the columns and the west portal are clearly romanesque--thick bases and rounded arches; however, as the walls and columns rise, you see the thinning and peaked arches typical of early Gothic. What really sets this cathedral apart is the excellent state of its murals and paintwork. Typically, the Medieval cathedral reveals brown stone or gray granite, but in the height of use, these walls and especially portals and burial crypts would have been painted. Because Salamanca has had the good fortune to be relatively untouched by conflict after 1200 and because its monuments have been in constant use and repair, several old murals remain. Most notable, in the south transept--if the church forms a giant cross, this is the branch to the right, looking from the back--there is a stunning mural of Christ with various Biblical scenes. It´s dated from 1150 to 1200 and is easily the oldest and best preserved I´ve seen. Crypts dating from the same period have murals of Lazarus emerging from the cave and Christ rising--really an expression of both art and devotion that demands several minutes of study for each panel.

The old cathedral´s shining glory is the alter piece. It consists of 53 panels depicting Biblical scenes and saint´s lives. Vivid light blues and rosy reds dominate the color scheme quite unlike most Spainish retablos--this is because the work was painted by Nicholas of Florence late in the 1400s and has been called the finest representation of the Florentine School of painting outside of Italy. The alter is topped by a half-dome that shows Christ floating in a sky of deep blue surrounded by angels, Mary, and the writers of the Gospels. I did not expect to find such a gem of the Italian Renaissance this near the Portuguese border. Nevertheless, the University of Florence decided in 1505--even as Nicholas was finishing his work--that the old cathedral could no longer accommodate its growing student body. Thus, the Cathedral Nueva was born. The two are actually side-by-side; the latter almost twice as large and in the plateresque style (stone carvings at the tops of doors and columns are decorated with grotesque figures that blend human and animal forms). I spent three times as long going through the older of the two--the new cathedral being a showpiece that lacked the artistic and spiritual air of the earlier church.

So, what´s this about closing down a tourist attraction? The brave (or foolish) can climb the tower of the old cathedral and take a catwalk across the top of the joined buildings to one of the towers of the new cathedral. The weather forecast this morning predicted bitter cold with high winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour, gusting to 60. No kidding. So, this German guy and I climbed the tower--because we are men! Now, I really don´t like heights, and I clung to the hand rail the whole way across the tops of the cathedrals. On arriving to the second tower, you go out onto a little platform. There was a guard there who said, ¨Very bad--very bad.¨ The German guy took pictures from an archway. I figured I´d come this far, so I went out. I turned around to take a picture of the dome. Just as I was snapping the camera, a gust of wind literally knocked be backwards off my feet. My head popped on the granite, and I could hear the guard call to me: ¨Come out! Come out!¨ (his English is about as good as my Spanish). I could just imagine the front page teaser in the Star Telegram: "TCCD PROF BLOWN OFF CATHEDRAL: Hand of God, or Sheer Stupidity?, more on page 12A." I rolled over an crawled--I´m not exaggerating--back to the door. The guard closed and locked the door after me and said, ¨Close now.¨ My German friend and I agreed and made our slow, white-knuckle climb across and down off the roofs with the guard in the lead.

Oh, the excitement just never ends. The university buildings themselves offer a trip through history, and four churches in the town were worth a visit. The Convento de San Esteban housed a museum of New World exploration and conversion. Many of the Benedictine monks who traveled to the New World were educated at the University of Salamanca and dispatched from this monastery. Some of their bodies were interred there, as well.

Finally, and on a personal note, I ate at Burger King today! BK de Espania offers a fried chicken breast sandwich that´s as good as any American burger. Plus, if you ask nicely, they will give you little packages of salt! I went back twice. I have a little secret hoard of four packs. I have salt. "It is precious to me" (Lord of the Rings).