Supplying of Masonry Materials in the Construction of the Crypt of Santa María La Real De La Almudena, Madrid, Spain, 1883-1911

Proceedings of the First International Congress on Construction History, Madrid, 20th-24th January 2003, ed. S. Huerta, Madrid: I. Juan de Herrera, SEdHC, ETSAM, A. E. Benvenuto, COAM, F. Dragados, 2003. Supplying of masonry materials in the construction of the crypt of Santa María la Real de la Almudena, Madrid, Spain, 1883-1911 M. Gómez Heras R. Fort González The importance of the petrological and petrophysical order to understand many subjects dealing with the studies of stony materials used on architecture is history of architecture. progressively gaining importance, both for the construction of new buildings, and for the restoration and rehabilitation of historical buildings. This work INTRODUCTION presents an example of the petrophysical studies that were canied out for the selection of the most suitable The origin of materials used on a building and how it lithologies for the construction of the crypt of Santa affects its construction is an interesting subject in the María la Real de la Almudena Cathedral (Madrid) in study of any building. The origin and transformation the second half of the 19th century. It is also shown processes of the material s used offers us historical, how, due to different causes, the type of material s used socio-economical and industrial data on one of the throughout the construction of the Crypt was changed. oldest human activities: the quarrying and use of These changes affected the construction, both stone resources. delaying it and resulting in a building made up with The determination of original quarries for a several different materials. This confirms a tendency building allows for optimal restoration when material that is very often observed on historical building s has been lost or needs to be substituted. That is an where construction was developed during a long important fact because there are not only changes period of time. It is in these cases where it is especially between stone types but there are also changes important to carry out a detaiJed documentary analysis between different quarries of the same lithology. of the factors causing this variability. These changes could cause incompatibilities between The importance of this analysis mainly lies on two new and original materials. points. On one hand, it can reveal important The present work mainly has two aims. First, it historical details concerning the interpretation of the reveals the process of selection and the supplying building. On the other hand, it gives us information history of the stone in the Crypt of the Cathedral of about the quarries from where the original materials the Almudena (Cathedral of Madrid). Second, the were extracted, allowing us to obtain stones of study of the documentation is completed with some exactly the same characteristics as those once petrological data which allow us locate the quarries employed in order to make substitutions of used in this building. architectonic elements. In that way, this work shows The Crypt has been selected because it was built how the combination of both documentary and with uncommon stony material s in the city of Madrid. geological data can be an important approach in The traditional architecture in Madrid has been made 1052 M. Gómez, R. Fort with stone, both granite from Sierra de Guadarrama and quarries have been made to support the historical and limestone from Colmenar de Oreja, as well as data obtained from the documents. clay bricks. Many of the bui ldings from the 17thto the The location of the original quarries of the beginning of 19th century have been built with those materials used in any element of architectural materials (Dapena et al. 1988). At the end of J9th heritage should follow the methodology summarised century new materials began to be used, mainly in the chart of figure 1. because of the facilities introduced by the new ways of transport. The stone called Piedra de Novelda was one of the most often used (Fort et al. 2002). ORIGIN OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CATHEDRAL The exhaustive selection process of the stone that OF THE ALMUDENA included some petrophysical tests was another reason for the choosing selection of the building. The idea of building a large church in Madrid with a Furthermore, since the Crypt is part of the Cathedral name of the Virgin Mary began when the dogma of we can compare some aspects with the Fabric in the lmmaculate Conception was proclaimed in 1854. The cathedrals of the previous centuries. Spanish people were very inf]uential in the proclamation of this dogma and this church was destined to be the largest sanctuary of the Virgin in METHODOLOGY Spain. The name Santa María de la Almudena has its The present work mainly deals with showing the origin in the Arab word al-mudaina that means the results obtained in the documented sources of the citadel because Alfonso VI discovered an image of building to determine the history of the supplying of the Virgin in the city walls after the conquering of the stony material. From this historical data the Madrid in 1085. possible origin of the stony materia]s used in this After the revolution of September of 1868 it was building work has been established. Petrographical decided to demolish the old temple of Santa María de and petrophysical tests of samples from the building la Almudena to make the streets of BaiJén and Mayor MONUMENT QUARRY -Historical -Historical DOCUMENTATION -Artistic DOCUMENTATION -Constructíon process -Minning -Lithologicat mapping ~-Geological mapping ~Geologícal Probable areas -Samphng information selection -Sampling UNITS MATERIALS -Testing: -Testing: CHARACTERlZATION .Petrographíc 'Petrographíc Cll;\RACTERIZATION .Mineralogical 'Mineralogical 'Geochemical 'Geochemical .Petrophysicai 'Petrophysical RESULTS SYNTHESIS RESULTS SYNTHESIS RESULTS CORRELATION I DlSCRIMINATIVE ANALYSIS 1 I QUARRIES LOCATlON Figure 1 Methodological synthesis on the location of original quarries of stony material in the historical-artistíc heritage (after Port 1996). Suppying of masonry material s in the construction of the crypt of Santa María la Real de la Ahnudena 1053 wider moving the worship to the Church of the Enrique RepuIJés y Vargas. The second stage Santísimo Sacramento (now the mi]itary church). overIappcd with the first and extended from 1910, That church of Santa María was p]aced in the north when the first piIJar of the cathedra] was set, to 1944, comer of the present crassroad of Bai]én and Mayor when an announcement was made for a new con test streets, prabably in the place where an old mosque to change the project (this stage inc1udes the stood. interruption of the Spanish Civil War). After the The Queen María de las Mercedes wished to help death of Repullés two architects folJowed: Juan Moya the Archbratherhood of the A]mudena and devouts in unti] ] 936 and Luis Mosteira fram 1939. The third the construction of a new church. As the result, in stage, following the new praject of Fernando Chueca- conjunction with the demo]ition of the old church, it Goitia and Carlos Sidra, lasted fram 1950 to ] 965. was decided to build a big temple under the name of The work was then stopped unti] 1988 (except for a Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena in the plot given short period of work in 1969). The last stage extended by the King Alfonso XII. The king also built the fram 1988 to ] 993 when the church was consecrated. temple as a mausoleum to his deceased wife. The work, including the inner decoration and some In 1878 the Marques de Cubas was appointed as architectura] elements, continues from 1993 to the architect of the building work. The first studies of the present day. plot were started in 188] and on 4 Apri] 1883 the The origina] project of Marques de Cubas foundation stone was laido This temple under consisted of a neorromanesque crypt and a neogothic construction was to become the future Cathedral of church. This study refers to the material s used in the the Diocese of Madrid-Alca]á erected by Leon XIII in construction of the crypt (] 883-1911) which is the ] 884. As a result, the Marques de Cubas transformed on]y finished part of the building according to his the previous parish church praject into a new one. project. The Cathedral of the Almudena has had several stages in its construction fram 1883. The first stage includes the construction of the crypt that ]asted fram THE DOCUMENTED SOURCES OF THE CATHEDRAL 1883 to 19] l. The responsible architects during this stage were the Marques de Cubas, until his death in The Fabric of a cathedral was one of the administrations 1899, Migue] de Olavaria, who died in 1904, and of the Chapter economy. This budget was looked after by one of the canon s that received different names in the Spanish Cathedra]s: Obrero, Fabriquero or Mayordomo de Fábrica (López-Aréva]o 1966; Torroja 1977; Cortón 1990; Ga]era 1982). The Fabric includes not on]y the construction but also al! things re]ated to the conservation and impravement of the building. The costs of cand]es, oi] or decorations for feast days were a]so the responsibility of the Fabric. Al! financial transactions had to be accounted for in the Fabric Rolls. AII the monetary deposits of the Fabric came fram several sources. There were cases in which this documentation was not included in the Fabric Rol!s; rather it was spread thraughout several cathedra] books. In other cases, like that of the Cathedral of Oviedo, Fabric RolJs were missing (Caso 1981). FinaIJy, it should be noted that other cathedrals have registers that are not continuous. Figure 2 Other important documents for the study of the General view of the Crypt of the Cathedral of Santa Mafia Fabric of a Cathedra] are the Chapter minutes.

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