Puerta de los Leones
Primatial Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo
Santa Iglesia Catedral Primada de Toledo
Toledo Spain
2008


The Portal of the Lions was built in the 15th and 16th centuries. It is the most modern of the great portals. It is so named because of the lions that surmount the columns of the gate that encloses the small entranceway. In addition, it has two other names: New Portal, for being the last that was built. Portal of Joy, in allusion to the celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin that is represented in the face of the back wall, over the archivolts.

It was constructed between the years 1460 and 1466, under the mandate of Archbishop Alfonso Carrillo de Acuña, with designs from Hanequin of Brussels, also known as Anequín de Egas Cueman,[13] and Enrique de Egas Cueman, his son,[14] in collaboration with the Flemish sculptors Pedro and Juan Guas and Juan Alemán, designer of the Apostolate. These artists supervised a large workshop that included prestigious stonemasons and carvers.

The statuary of this portal is one of the best Hispano-Flemish assemblages of the 15th century, above all the Virgin of the column-mullion and the statues of the jambs. The cherubim and musical angels that accompany the ascension of Mary to the sky are works of art executed with great delicacy. The façade was altered by Durango and Salvatierra, the same as in the other portals, to enhance the appearance of the building. The bronze leaves of the doors are the work of Francisco de Villalpando, who created a masterpiece on the 35 panels or plates. They are hidden from view, protected with wood panels. On top is the great Rose Window of polychromatic stained glass.

The interior of the portal corresponds to the great façade of the transept on its southern side, on top of which rests the small balcony with balustrade that corresponds to the tribune where the organ of the Emperor is located. Higher up is the rose window, surrounded by a frame with its pendentives decorated with rosettes.

In the lower part of the great façade is the portal divided by a column-mullion. Above the doors are the tympanum sculpted with themes of the genealogy of the Virgin whose designers were the same who worked on the exterior of this portal. On top of the tympanum is the plateresque carving with a great medallion of the Coronation of the Virgin in the center, the work of Gregorio Pardo (eldest son of Felipe Vigarny). On both sides are the statues of David and Solomon, attributed to Esteban Jamete.

To the right and left of this front are two sepulchres. The one on the right is empty (it is believed that it was prepared to receive the remains of Brother Bartolomé Carranza); that of the left holds the remains of Canon Alfonso de Rojas, represented in a praying statue.

The bronze reja (metalwork screen) was made a century after the great screens of the main chapel and of the choir, in a style completely different from these, valuing solidity and utility more than the taste for ornamentation of the previous century. Its designer was Juan Álvarez de Molina, a native of Úbeda (Jaén), who made the screen in the city of Toledo in 1647. The documents preserved in regard to this say that the master metalsmith received 8,504 reales and 12 maravedís, in addition to the 27,000 reales that had been given to him earlier. The document gives account of the cost of the metal employed, which was nearly as much as the total payment he received for the work.


The Primatial Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo, otherwise known as Toledo Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic church in Toledo, Spain. It is the seat of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Toledo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_Cathedral

The structure of the building is greatly influenced by the French Gothic style of the 13th century, but adapted to Spanish taste. It measures 120 metres (390 ft) in length by 59 metres (194 ft) in width and 44.5 metres (146 ft) high. It consists of five naves with transept and double ambulatory. The outer naves present an odd anomaly in being a little wider than the other two. The oldest part of the building is the sanctuary, which maintains in its architecture the original triforia that extended along the length of the naves and were removed in one of the many alterations that the cathedral underwent. Still in the Gothic period, these triforia were replaced with large stained-glass windows. Those triforia that survive in the sanctuary are of Mudéjar influence. The lowest section is made of cusped arches that rest on paired columns and the upper section presents interlaced arches typical of Mudéjar. It is not known if these Mudéjar themes existed in the previous mosque and were copied as a reminder or if they were added in one of the improvements of the stonework, as something original and tasteful.