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History
The significance of the Collegiate Church of the Divino Salvador within the Archdiocese of Sevilla lies not only in its rich historical and cultural heritage but also in its unique developmental history.
To focus solely on the building’s architecture or its movable assets—altarpieces, sculptures, paintings, textiles, choral books—is to settle for an incomplete vision of the monumental complex.
The originality and uniqueness of this temple is that it has been reused by Roman, Visigothic, Arab, and Christian cultures.
HISTORICAL TIMELINE
The Roman Basilica
The early occupation of the space where the Collegiate Church of the Divino Salvador stands today remains unknown. There are no written records, neither Roman nor Arab, that refer to the building that existed here. However, it is known that such occupation took place due to the archaeological remains that have been found.
The main argument used to support this thesis is based on the idea of the persistence of places of worship. In the early moments of Christianization, former Roman basilicas—civic buildings where justice was administered and commercial and social exchanges took place—were commonly used as churches. These same Christian temples were later transformed into mosques. Once again, after the Reconquest, these places were converted back into Christian temples. This process of continuity of sacred places on the same sites was due to two main reasons:
1. It was not necessary to construct a new building since one already existed.
2. Occupying a former temple conveyed the idea of supremacy of the new religion—ultimately, the new culture—over the previous one.
Therefore, in Roman times, the urban space now occupied by the Collegiate Church must have been a Roman basilica that formed part of the city’s forum.
We have several important archaeological testimonies to support this, such as the fact that the minaret of the former mosque, now the bell tower, incorporated a Roman tombstone from the time of Augustus in its construction. Although the tombstone was reused, it is an indication of the importance of the area in Roman times, evidencing the very ancient occupation of the site of the Savior.
Another important archaeological testimony consists of the capitals of the semi-buried columns in the Patio de los Naranjos, which are also from Roman times and probably belonged to a Roman building near the site.
Finally, it should be noted that when the foundations of the Baroque temple began to be built, coins from the time of Tiberius and Theodosius were found.
The Mosque of Ibn Adabbas (Years 829–830)
Ibn Adabbás, formerly the main mosque of Seville until the construction of the Almohad Great Mosque, now the Cathedral, was built by the qadi of the same name at the behest of Emir Abd al-Rahman al Awsat from March 11, 829 to February 27, 830.
The Provincial Archaeological Museum of Seville preserves a column shaft from this building bearing the foundational inscription that reads:
“May God have mercy on Abd al-Rahman b. Al-Hakam, the just emir, the one guided by God, who ordered the construction of this mosque, under the direction of Umar b. Adabbás, qadi of Seville, in the year 214 (h.), and [this] was written by Abd al-Barr b. Harum”
The emiral mosque was built on the remains of a public building of Roman and Visigothic origin—according to tradition—and is considered one of the oldest Spanish constructions from the Muslim period.
The mosque of Ibn Adabbas, according to traditional reconstructions, consisted of two distinct but continuously connected parts:
1. An open-air area, the ablutions courtyard
2. A large prayer area.
Approximately 11 m of the lower body of the former minaret remain, with masonry of reused ashlars and a square plan measuring 5.88 m per side. This tower, together with two other constructions (the original Great Mosque of Córdoba 785/86 and the Alcazaba of Mérida 835), forms the only surviving source of study for the Andalusian Emirate.
Externally, as can be seen today, the area had a marked commercial character, so the mosque was always surrounded by alcaicerías and souks.
The Christianized Collegiate Mosque
When the Christians arrived in Seville in 1248, they transformed the mosques into Christian temples through a very simple action: they changed the orientation of the temple (mosques had a North-South orientation while Christian churches are oriented East-West).
On the other hand, in the space occupied by the Mihrab, the sacred place of the mosque, they built a chapel dedicated to the Virgin. It is certain that it was the Virgin of the Waters, a Fernandine image, that served to Christianize the mosque. They also adapted the former minaret as a bell tower.
Finally, they used the ablutions courtyard, equipped with a fountain, running water, and peripheral arcades, as rooms and facilities for the church’s servants. It was also used as a cemetery, both in the center and in several funerary chapels, such as the Chapel of the Pineda family, a chapel that has survived to this day in very good condition.
The mosque was reused by using the central nave as a canons’ choir and adjusting family chapels and burials to the modulation of the columns.
King Saint Ferdinand dedicated this temple to the Divine Savior of the World, hence its name, and endowed it with an Abbot and 10 canons, in imitation of the Cathedral. The temple of the Savior thus had, from its origin, a dual institutional nature: its eminent and specific rank as a Collegiate Church, one step immediately below that of a Cathedral, as the permanent seat of solemn manifestation of the liturgy and public prayer of the Church; and, at the same time, its parochial character, corresponding to pastoral tasks of this nature in relation to its parishioners. On August 24, 1356, a great earthquake brought down the upper part of the minaret transformed into a bell tower. That restoration accounts for the pointed arches appearing in the second body of the tower.
In 1610, the last body of the tower was built, which Leonardo de Figueroa would later adorn at the end of the 17th century. The ensemble is covered with a circular vault topped with a cupola with brackets and empty niches on each of its four fronts.
At the beginning of the second third of the 17th century, successive constructions caused the ablutions courtyard to gradually lose size; thus the construction of the Sacramental Chapel first, and the Chapel of the Christ of the Forsaken later, reduced the courtyard to two-thirds of its original size.
The First Baroque Temple
Given the old and ruinous state of the old mosque, the Chapter of the Collegiate Church, in 1671, saw the need for demolition and the construction of a new temple.
The first Baroque temple, which had the collaboration of Bernardo Simón de Pineda and Pedro Roldán and the direction of Esteban García, was built from scratch in 5 years, from 1674 to 1679, a very short period of time in that era to build a Baroque temple of these characteristics.
The financing of this construction was carried out through alms collected among the parishioners and with significant support from the revenues of the Collegiate Church and the Church of Seville.
On October 24, 1679, with the building almost finished, at four in the morning, the temple collapsed completely, leaving only the exterior walls.
It appears that the cause of this collapse was the weakness of the pillars. The mixture of stones and bricks, to reduce the costs of the new construction, and failures in proportions would explain this collapse. Added to this is the weakness of the soil, which offers soft-to-medium resistance. Since the church was built in only nine years, there was not enough time for the ground to consolidate, which is why the ground was unable to support the load.
Unfortunately, there is no information about this first Baroque temple. It appears that it had Solomonic columns on the large pillars. It can be said that it would have been much more Baroque than the current temple, which is characterized by more classicist and austere lines.
The Second Baroque Temple
The collapse of the first temple produced an enormous impact and discouragement in Seville, but the canons of the Collegiate Church soon recovered and resumed the works. The ground was full of rubble, just as it had been in 1674 after the collapse of the original mosque.
The economic resources necessary to face this new construction phase were equally centered on popular devotion and the sending of alms collectors to the Indies. The progress of the works required abundant amounts of alms and their regular flow had to be guaranteed by any means. The accounts of the Collegiate Church were going through difficult times and the canons had to resort to selling old and valuable objects.
The reconstruction began by respecting the planimetry of the collapsed building, that is, the foundations corresponding to the three naves of the temple. The new project was consulted with Eufrasio López de Rojas, master builder of the Cathedral of Jaén, insisting, naturally, on the safety and stability of the new building.
The dilemma at that time was whether to make the pillars of stone or brick. The collapsed temple, it seems, had, like the pillars of the Cathedral, an exterior stone cladding and a core of brick, rubble, and debris, a common construction method at the time.
To advise the canons, José Granados, then responsible for the works of the Cathedral of Granada, was brought in. According to the architect’s recommendation: “the pillars should be of palomera stone and according to the measurement in varas that D. José Granados made”
This decision was fundamental to guarantee the future of the temple, since the pillars have perfectly withstood all the structural and seismic movements that the building has suffered throughout its 292 years of life.
Once the reconstruction of the church began, a certain Alonso González, self-styled “master architect of civil and military works,” wrote a document in 1694 stating that “the walls being built over the arches are very thin.” And it is stated so that “another ruin like the past one does not occur, and it is said, as they said then, that it was due to a lack of knowledgeable men in the city.”
It was the stonemason Francisco Gómez Septier who carried out the stone carving. In 1696, Leonardo de Figueroa replaced him. This master belongs to one of the most important architectural dynasties in Andalusia. The Figueroa family came to fill the entirety of Sevillian Baroque from the last third of the 17th century until the end of the following century, that is, from the full establishment of the style to the progressive disintegration and reaction of the first clarifying tendencies of neoclassicism.
Indeed, practically until his arrival in the city around 1670, the architectural schemes developed in Seville drew from late Renaissance sources, recreating and slightly transforming Mannerist formulas, and only incorporating already Baroque decorative elements. It was Leonardo de Figueroa, the artist who established the full formulas of this style, both from a tectonic and ornamental point of view.
In 1712, the building was definitively completed thanks to the impetus of Archbishop Manuel Arias. Due to technical and economic difficulties, the two twin towers flanking the main façade were never built, reusing the old Islamic tower that Figueroa topped.
The Extinction of the Collegiate Church: The Parish of the Savior
On June 28, 1852, by virtue of the concordat between Isabella II and the Holy See, the Collegiate character was suppressed, leaving the Savior reduced to just another parish of Seville. This represented an important change in the religious and economic status of the building: with the suppression of its collegiate character, the choir became unnecessary. As early as June 28, 1861, the clergy in charge of the parish requested the Cardinal Archbishop to suppress the choir:
“on any feast day, most of the faithful cannot see the divine offices; and since the groups of columns are very thick and considerably increased by the two large pulpits, the space from which the high altar can be seen is also very reduced on both sides”
The relocation of the choir involved finding a new location for the organ. This exceptional instrument, with a double façade, was located at the boundary between the central nave and the north side nave above the choir stalls.
This relocation took place in 1861, with the choir being suppressed, some of whose individual pieces have been preserved to this day.
The organ lost much of its sonority when the trumpet stop located on the north façade, facing the Patio de los Naranjos, was removed. Its new location was at the foot of the church, above the main door. For its installation, a gallery combined with the entrance screen was installed, dangerously “altering” the structure of the building.
The disappearance of its Collegiate status generated the loss of an important part of its economic heritage and resources for the maintenance of the building. Its artistic and religious heritage was largely fragmented, with important elements being lost.
The Parish of the Salvador
The origin of the deterioration of the Salvador complex is due to a set of complex causes, combined with a lack of adequate maintenance. Since the Collegiate Church lost its real estate due to ecclesiastical confiscation, it was left without funds for its maintenance. A fragment of plaster provides the date of 1831 as the last restoration activity on one of the high cornices.
Subsequently, little was done: The Passion chapel was restored by Juan Talavera in 1907 after the fire of the previous year. In 1915, the interior of the half-orange dome was painted. Since the intervention of the Marquis of Vega Inclán in the Patio de los Naranjos in 1918, no restoration or construction activity was recorded until 1987, when the Junta de Andalucía began to intervene with small-scale works that allowed the temple to remain open for 16 years.
In the archive of the Collegiate Church of the Salvador, interesting correspondence has appeared between the parish priest of the time (1893), the Diocesan Board for the construction and repair of temples, and the Seville City Council regarding the precarious conservation conditions of the building.
The set of documents begins with a budget presented by the parish priest for an amount of 6,000 pesetas, dated April 13, 1893, to the Diocesan Board for the construction and repair of temples and ecclesiastical buildings, for a set of consolidation works justified as follows:
“in this parish temple, undoubtedly the most important in this capital, movement has been noticed for some time in some of its main walls, which have produced considerable cracks, detachment of some ashlars in the lintels of various openings, and separations in the elements of some frameworks.
The repair of such damage is urgent, and the walls must be tied together, if the ruin of such a beautiful temple is to be avoided in the not-too-distant future.”
This budget is presented due to the lack of funds of the parish and the poor result of a public collection in the neighborhood given “the commercial and agricultural crisis.” We are on the eve of the great crisis of 1898, which would end with the war with the United States and the loss of the Spanish colonies.
This document is sent to the City Council, which requests that a preliminary project and overall budget be drawn up to be inspected by the Municipal Architect.
On July 20 of the same year, and in response to the Diocesan Board, the parish priest insists again that:
“In reply to your very kind letter that you were pleased to address to me regarding the repair of this parish temple, I must inform you that the allocation for worship barely suffices to cover the ordinary expenses that occur; that due to the commercial and agricultural crisis, this parish is not in a position to make a significant subscription, so that after having announced and promoted it, the amount collected does not reach one hundred reales.”
Finally, the Municipal Architect issues a report, after a “thorough and careful examination of the entire building” with two conclusions:
First, that the requested works are not as important as claimed:
“The requested works are not really as important as they have been made out to be, since they simply consist of some cracks of little importance, with the roofs of the part where they are located being in good condition, so the repair will amount to approximately two thousand pesetas, with no danger of ruin existing today.”
However, says the Municipal Architect, there are other problems, much more serious “whose repair is most urgent, if what happened in the Cathedral is to be avoided in this beautiful temple, the first and best after the Cathedral.” He refers to the collapse of the Cathedral’s dome that had recently occurred at that time, specifically in 1888. This ruin caused great alarm in Seville.
“Only the works in the part corresponding to those cracks appear in the request, and yet there are defects and construction flaws whose repair is most urgent if what happened in the Cathedral is to be avoided in this beautiful temple, the first and best after the Cathedral. The roofs of the side naves are almost flat and as a consequence water enters to such an extent that the vaults they cover are completely stained and detaching, and the timbers largely rotted. These roofs need to be raised or otherwise, and in a very short time, they will come down along with the vaults. Two of the triumphal arches have large channels for water collection and due to their poor arrangement they cause water to seep in, and in addition to the damage caused to the arches, their beautiful paintings are detaching. Both works are most urgent, as well as the inspection of the projections and flat roofs, which must be arranged so that they do not suffer alteration from frost, using cement pavements and zinc or tin channels in the triumphal arches. All of which works will not be less than thirty-five or forty thousand pesetas, since the roofs of the side naves must be raised and almost entirely re-roofed. In summary, the necessary and most urgent works in the Church of the Savior will not be less than forty thousand pesetas.”
It is truly curious that one hundred and ten years ago, with only visual inspections and without any control technology, conclusions very similar to those we have reached after many years of studies, controls, and structural verifications were reached. It also represents a reaffirmation of the diagnosis we have made and which has given rise to the Restoration Project, currently being carried out.
Of course, these “most urgent” works were never carried out, and the Savior has arrived, by fits and starts, to our days in the same delicate situation. In 1987, emergency works began, due to the poor condition of the temple, designed and directed since then by Architect Fernando Mendoza, at the initiative of the then parish priest, D. Manuel del Trigo Campos.
Recognition of the artistic and monumental values of the Savior came very late: It was declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument on February 5, 1985. For the General Plan of Seville, it is catalogued with the letter A (Integral Protection), which means that it only allows restoration works, such as those carried out between 2001 and 2008.
1 Emilio Gómez Piñól “The Collegiate Church of the Savior…”
The Light
The Church of the Savior, as conceived by architects Esteban García and José Granados, is a temple filled with light, like a luminous metaphor of Divinity: light is Life and Salvation.
But the stained glass windows that we can see today in the church are not those that existed at the time of the temple’s inauguration in 1712, where a large window to the rising sun was displayed and whose light penetrated through numerous transparent blown glass panes wired with lead or tin forming squares and hexagons. In 1870, the stained glass windows we see today were installed with the patronage of the Dukes of Montpensier.
The patterns formed by the glass are almost exclusively geometric in nature, of Hispano-Muslim origin, with star and floral motifs that leave space for the emblem of the Collegiate Church, the cross on the globe.
The colors are so intense that the passage of the sun creates effects of colored lights on the stone, exalting its religious symbolism in a church whose fundamental theme was the celebration of Divine Light.
The symbolism of light in the Christian world is therefore especially evident in the Church of the Savior; “light illuminates nature so that man can contemplate it and orient himself, it illuminates the paths of life so that they can be traveled, it is the indispensable clarity so that man can orient himself.” It is undoubtedly this sensory framework, one of the protagonists of our visit on an unparalleled journey through the Trace of the Sacred.