16. Museum of the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria
Video guide
16. Museum of the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria
The museum of the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria occupies the entire cloister and houses a valuable collection of movable property from three main sources: the church itself, churches and convents that no longer exist in Calatayud, and pieces on loan from parishes in the region belonging to the Bishopric of Tarazona. The exhibition is organised according to a dual criterion that combines the religious aspect, representing the path of faith, with a chronological order that covers the history of art.
On entering the museum, in the first section of the tour, a 13th-century stone baptismal font with an interesting decoration of arches, from the Church of Saint Andrew, immediately stands out. Next to this piece is a magnificent Romanesque Christ carved in polychrome wood, as well as various Gothic works, both sculptural and pictorial. Among the latter, the Virgin of Mediavilla (Middle Town) stands out, which once presided over the original main altarpiece of the collegiate church, and the altarpiece of the Epiphany by Tomás Giner, considered one of the most prestigious Aragonese painters of the Crown of Aragon during the 15th century.
Continuing towards the next bay, visitors can contemplate magnificent examples of sculpture and painting from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. In this space, exceptional pieces stand out, such as a beautiful ivory altarpiece, a spectacular Gothic panel representing Saint Christopher, the post-mortem portrait of the Bishop of Tarazona, Don Pedro Cerbuna, and a display case that protects valuable books made of vellum and parchment that form part of the rich Archive of the Collegiate Church.
The next section is dedicated to the different religious orders that had convents in the city, both male and female, including Dominicans, Mercedarians, Franciscans, Carmelites, Jesuits and Augustinians, among others. Among the outstanding works in this section is the great carving of the Assumption of the Virgin that originally presided over the current main altarpiece before being replaced in the 18th century, the fantastic canvas of the Immaculate Conception by Francisco Bayeu, the portrait of the Venerable Father Ruzola, a Carmelite from Calatayud who wielded great influence at the court of Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria, and a magnificent sculpture representing Saint Dominic of Guzmán and Saint Francis of Assisi, founders of the Dominican and Franciscan orders respectively, symbolically sustaining the weight of the Catholic Church.
The New Chapter House features beautiful pieces of precious metalwork, most of which belong to the liturgical furnishings of the Collegiate Church. Among the reliquaries on display, the gilded silver arm containing relics of San Íñigo de Oña, patron saint of the city, and the venerated relic of the Holy Thorn stand out. Also on display is a notable collection of gilded and natural-colour silver chalices dating from the 15th to the 18th centuries, monstrances, pyxes, valuable spouted jugs and a Sevillana jug of clear Arab tradition. The processional and altar crosses include two exceptional examples with rock crystal plaques, one of which contains a lignum crucis.
Finally, in the display cases in the last section of the cloister, some unique pieces from villages in the region of the Community of Calatayud can be admired, temporarily on loan to the museum. These include a Madonna of Trapani carved in polychrome and gilded alabaster, owned by the parish of the church of La Granja de San Pedro, and a spectacular piece of amber furniture, the Queen’s Dressing Table, made in Poland, which was a gift from the sultana of Morocco to Queen Maria Luisa of Parma, and which currently forms part of the liturgical furnishings of the church of Santa María de Olvés.
