Why is the Tarazona Cathedral choir special? Because its location makes it unique with respect to the cathedrals of Europe.
Initially, the choral space was located in the exact place that governed the architecture of the cathedral, but after the last intervention in the orfeón that took place in the 18th century, it ceased to be so.
The choir did not move, but the walls of the temple that changed its location within the main nave.
Why were its 80 oak seats there? For its functionality: the choir was the place where the clergy performed their liturgies, so it was considered, along with the chair, the most important place of the temple.
But just as the episcopal see had no impact on architecture, the choir was a major theme. Therefore, during the work of the last restoration, thanks to which we know this Cathedral as it can be visited today, those responsible decided to keep these noble chairs in their original place.
And, undoubtedly, it is one of the spaces that most surprises its visitors: it imposes the observation of the double tribune (with 45 seats in the lower part and 35 in the upper part), which creates an enveloping and magisterial feeling to those who know it….
Interior of the choir of the Cathedral of Tarazona. Monumental Foundation of Tarazona
Inside the choir of the Cathedral of Tarazona
ts style has been modified over the years, parallel to the different artistic styles that the Cathedral of Santa María de la Huerta has experienced in its many interventions.
Since its creation in the 15th century, it has retained an unusual decoration: Gothic tracery on the back of the high stalls and no ornamental motif on the lower part, and figurative themes (suns and moons), geometrics and vegetables in the palm trees’ rest.
This set of chapter chairs was made by Antón II Sariñena and Salvador Sariñena, and is so similar to the choir stalls of the Collegiate Church of Borja that the same authorship is thought of.
- Decoration of the choir of the Cathedral of Tarazona. Monumental Foundation of Tarazona
- Detail of the decoration of the high posts
- Decoration of the choir of the Cathedral of Tarazona. Monumental Foundation of Tarazona
- Detail of decoration in low masonry
At that time it still did not have the façade that we know today: it is from 1696, when bishop Bernardo Mateo Sánchez del Castellar ordered the removal of the fence that closed the main chapel and ordered the use of all this iron for the enclosure of the coral space.
It was used to make ornamental bars with simple knots of golden brass and reliefs of hanging fruits of the same colour, arranged on an alabaster base from the quarries of the neighbouring town of Ablitas in Navarre, some 13 kilometres from Tarazona.
What is currently striking about this ensemble is the upper and lateral ornamentation, typical of the decorative Baroque of the period.
- Choir of the Gate of the Cathedral of Tarazona. Monumental Foundation of Tarazona
- Gate of the choir of the Cathedral of Tarazona
- Choir of the Gate of the Cathedral of Tarazona. Monumental Foundation of Tarazona
- Gate of the choir of the Cathedral of Tarazona
- Almost two decades later, between 1714 and 1715, bishop Blas
Serrate decided to close the choral space on the sides and feet of the temple, framing the Gothic masonry within a plaster construction as an altarpiece, as we know it today…. The transcoro, the work of the sculptor Juan Ramírez, consists of two floors.
In the lower part, a central sculptural group represents the Calvary of Christ between the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, and places two stucco statues on the sides: Saint Thomas of Villanueva and, probably, Saint Attilane.
The pattern of Tarazona cannot be defined with complete certainty due to the loss of the right hand, in which he is believed to have carried his characteristic fish.
On the upper floor, distributed in three niches, are Santa Quiteria, San Juan Evangelista and Blessed Pedro de Arbués. Finally, crowning the transcoro above the two levels, there is the coat of arms of the prelate.
- Trascoro Tarazona Cathedral. Monumental Foundation of Tarazona
- Trascoro Cathedral of Tarazona
- Transcoro Calvary Cathedral of Tarazona. Monumental Foundation of Tarazona
- Drtalle del Calvario of the Cathedral of Tarazona transcoro
But this was not the last intervention that took place in the choral space: at the end of the 18th century a new organ was placed and the extension was made at the foot of the temple that made the location of the Tarazona Cathedral choir inside the main nave different from that of the rest of the European cathedrals.
These circumstances were taken advantage of by the bishop of the time, José Laplana, to undertake a new redecoration in the transcoro. Once again, plaster was the essential protagonist: in this material there were several pilasters of smooth shafts and Saxon capitals with golden garlands and a neoclassic temple.
