Climbing the walls

Ten years ago I saw the Pet Shop Boys at the old SOS 4.8 Festival in Murcia. I expected them to be terrible but they were just the opposite. They really engaged with the audience. At one point Neil was talking to us. He said how much he and Chris had enjoyed sitting in the Plaza Cardenal Beluga, in front of the Cathedral in Murcia, with a drink and a snack. "It's beautiful, isn't it, that Cathedral?" The home crowd roared its approval. He's right though. Whatever you think of its purpose Murcia Cathedral is quite a building.

Although the current building was started in 1394 the part you notice first, the frontage or facade, is Baroque in style. To my mind Baroque architecture means that it has lots of twiddly bits just like Baroque music is Handel, Monteverdi and Vivaldi. But, I have a duty to my loyal readership (hello Derek!) to be a bit more specific. Wikipedia tells me that Baroque Architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style. It began in Italy in the early 17th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church in an attempt to inspire awe in people in the hope of keeping them from falling into the clutches of the Protestant church.

It might be some sort of local allegiance but I think that Murcia Cathedral is my favourite Cathedral in Spain. Burgos is impressive, Cuenca looks nearly British, Jaén looks so solid, Sevilla is just so big and the position of Zaragoza on the side of the Ebro is so imposing but Murcia bears comparison. Santa María, for that's its name, is individualistic, it has a bit of style, a bit of character all its own. I think it's the asymmetry and that huge, solid, immovable tower off to the left that does it.

Back in September 2023 I noticed that scaffolding was going up on the facade and I thought how sad it would be for our house guests during the next few years. Everyone knows that getting a kitchen extension takes ages, and never gets finished on time, so I reckoned the Cathedral would be visually impaired for quite a while. It's true that the modern screens in front of big project scaffolding are usually interesting in themselves but it's clear that Jaime Bort's facade (there were lots of architects involved in reality but Bort is considered the main man) is probably just a mite more impressive. I suspected that the work would take years even though the timetable said a long year. In October one of the photos in my album shows the scaffolding and there's a caption - "The Cathedral in Murcia is having the facade tidied up. They are advertising that there will be visits up the scaffolding. I keep checking their website. I'll be there.".

And indeed I have been. I think it's a clever idea. As well as putting up the scaffolding for the workers to get on with the restoration, the scaffolders put up a second set of scaffolding so that we, the gawping public, can go up and watch the work on the facade. I've done it twice now. To be honest it's not that great a tour, I don't particularly care for the style of the guide, but that doesn't stop it being a worthwhile experience. The guide talks in something close to a monotone and his spiel goes someone like, "On this level we have four saints - he names the saints - he says that one has the face of the man who commissioned the work on the facade, Cardenal Beluga. He names more saints and the archangels. I read somewhere that, sculpture wise, there are twenty saints, three archangels, a guardian angel and the mysteries of the Virgin (heaven knows what they are) on the facade - the guide named them all. The most exciting he gets is when he asks if anyone knows the Patron Saint of Cartagena (Murcia is in the dioceses of Cartagena and the saint in question is San Ginés de la Jara) or, when he points out San Patricio, Saint Patrick, the Patron Saint of Murcia and makes a quip about shamrocks and black beer. There is very little in the way of those titbits of information, or interesting little stories, that are the bits people remember of a visit long after forgetting that both Santa Bárbara Mayor and Menor have their place on the facade. He doesn't say much about the restoration work going on. So far as I could tell the main thing they seem to be doing at the moment is chipping away some mortar that was added in a 19th Century, in a previous smartening up of the building, which was, apparently, a big mistake. 

They're still saying they'll be done in Autumn of this year but, if you fancy having a look yourself before then, you can book it up online on this link. 

P:S. The photo at the top is an old one. The scaffolding is now covered.