Author: Thom

This statue – a sort of Pantocrator – forms the center portion of a small medieval reredos, presumably for a side altar at the cathedral or one of the town or village churches in the area. For context, I’ve provided the full reredos in a bonus photo, below. There’s something I find charming about this rather naive painted sculpture, but […]

The Cathedral Museum of Astorga has a beautiful collection of vestments, such as this red set consisting of a chasuble and two matching dalmatics. I have many more photos on my Flickr page (where I also have some closeups of details and needlework), but this is a representative sample. Some of these are simply gorgeous. Date: 20 April 2016 Place: […]

This panel in the Cathedral museum in Astorga depicts a legendary event from the translation of the remains of Saint James to their current location in Santiago de Compostella. It involves a hostile local Celtic ruler whose name comes down to us as Queen Lupa, as well as recalcitrant oxen and a fire-breathing dragon. The Golden Legend, Volume II, trans. […]

The Cathedral museum in Astorga contains a number of these antiphonaries and psalters. Since the whole choir had to share one book, you can bet the text size was tending towards largish. In fact, this particular bookstand is taller than I am. They probably had a monk whose job it was to turn the pages. Date: 20 April 2016 Place: […]

The Cathedral museum in Astorga is not vast, but some of the exhibits are truly beautiful. In particular, I was mesmerized by a series of medieval panels depicting the temptations of Saint Anthony. Some of them are truly harrowing! This one seems to be the introductory panel. Date: 20 April 2016 Place: Astorga (Castilla y León, Spain)

The cathedral is full of a plethora of splendid, indeed, magnificent side altars and chapels. If you want to see more, check out my Flickr page, which has dozens of photos. Instead, I’m going to finish up our tour of the cathedral with this curious little detail, inconspicuously tucked away, reminding you that we are indeed still in León, where […]

The reason that “cathedrals” are called what they are is that this is the home of a bishop, and more specifically a bishop’s throne, called a cathedra. A cathedral is just the building that houses the cathedra. This particular one may be found in the Catedral de Santa María de Astorga. The one commonality I have noticed in cathedra is […]

Sometimes, you just need to break out of your two-dimensional space and look up. This is the ceiling of the Catedral de Santa María de Astorga. One of the things that I love about the interior of most Spanish churches is that they are mostly so simple and elegant – except of course the altars, which are explosions of vibrancy […]

This is the central image of Saint James from a side-chapel altar in the Catedral de Santa María de Astorga. It’s always good to see an old friend! As a bonus, I’m including a photo of the entire altar and retablo below, so you can see it in context. The whole place is simply stunning. Most of the side chapels […]