New finds in the Cathedral

In the access staircase  to the  western doorway,  and in the  Portico de la Gloria crypt,  an archeological intervention related  to the restoration  works at the cathedral has been carried out throughout the years 2017 and 2021.

Archaeological remains reused as construction and filling materials in the various reforms that were carried out in these spaces throughout history, have been retrieved.  They are currently on display in the Cathedral Museum.

Many of the remains found come from the stone choir of Maestro Mateo, whose destruction took place in 1604, when many of its pieces were reused as construction materials, as is the case of this baseboard.

This is also the case of  these two canopies, whose vegetal decoration and use of trepanning shows the quality and creativity of the Mattean workshop who carried out the construction of the choir.

The turrets come from Maestro Mateo's choir and represent the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem. In some cases, they have retained traces of their original polychromy, which is similar to the one applied in the Portico de la Gloria by the workers of the Matthean workshop.

Of the same origin are pieces such as the arches to give shelter sculptures of biblical characters; the beam, which presents vegetal decorations; the fragments of the  canopie and these two round-arch arcades  with rosettes, in which diverse remains of polychromy can be appreciated.

This is not the case of this tombstone fragment  whose  original provenance is unknown and which is dated in 1085.

The pieces, of unknown original provenance within  the cathedral complex, define a program centered on the  Massacre of the Innocents, ordered by King Herod, whose representation has not been infrequent throughout  medieval art history.

Although they show the influence of workshops of Matteo's heritage, they present characteristics that take them to the Gothic style, and, therefore, they would not correspond to the hand of Maestro Mateo or his workshop, being possible to establish for the whole a range between the years 1250-1350.