10. Choir, after choir and organ
Video guide
10. Choir, after choir and organ
The choir of the Collegiate Church of Santa María in Calatayud is the centre of the life of the chapter and of liturgical music and constitutes the axis of the building. It houses a magnificent Baroque organ made by Silvestre Thomas in 1762, continuing a tradition that goes back to the 15th century. This organ was financed by Juan Miguel Pérez de Nueros y Fernat, a nobleman from Calatayud, and has retained much of its original splendour to this day.
The choir has double seating on three sides, with the communion rail on the fourth side, open to the main chapel. The walnut stalls are adorned with plant motifs, masks and various figures. A lectern with a small temple housing the image of Christ carrying the cross completes the ensemble.
The base of the retrochoir is made of local noble stones, such as black limestone from Calatorao and alabaster from Fuentes de Jiloca. The structure has twenty Solomonic columns of Calatorao stone, with gilded Corinthian capitals, which delimit seven altars. On either side are altars dedicated to the Virgin of the Rosary, Our Lady of Tremedal, the Virgin of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of the Pilar. On the wall of the retrochoir are the altars of Saint Peter of Arbués, Ecce Homo and Saint Íñigo of Oña. Ten niches with reliefs of the Holy Fathers and other saints alternate with the chapels.
The front facing the main chapel is closed off by a bronze gate, crowned by a sculpture of the Virgin of the Assumption. Above the plaster entablature, there is a decoration with images of saints, angels and Marian devotions, with the equestrian representations of Saint George of Cappadocia and Saint James the Moor-Slayer standing out at the corners of the retrochoir.
Flanking the door giving access to the organ and below it are the twin chapels of the Christ of the Seven Words and Saint Barbara of Nicomedia, made around 1775 and paid for by the canon José Mateo. They are modelled on the altarpieces of the retrochoir, made of gilded wood and set on an altar table with a front lined with tiles from the period. Both chapels have the same floor plan, with recesses and projections, concave and convex shapes, and two columns at the ends supporting a semicircular arch that closes the space like a shell. They are profusely decorated in the Rococo style with rockeries, foliage, cherub heads, pendentives, corbels, cornucopias and mirrors.
The altarpiece of the Cristo de las Siete Palabras (Christ of the Seven Words) is presided over by a serene carving of the Crucified One with three nails, from the beginning of the 17th century, with a serene face and well-proportioned body. This Christ forms part of one of the city’s Easter processions and is kept in a cruciform niche, flanked by two sculptures representing hermit saints: Saint Francis of Paula and Saint Onuphrius.
The altarpiece of Saint Barbara of Nicomedia is presided over by three sculptures in the round. The central one shows the titular saint richly dressed in a tunic and cloak, bearing the palm of martyrdom and the tower at her feet, flanked by an Apostle and the Archangel Saint Michael. In the attic, a 20th-century sculpture of Saint Eligius completes the ensemble.
