Cloister and the Romanesque portal of the Epiphany
Highlights of the Cathedral / Cloister and the Romanesque portal of the Epiphany
The construction of the cloister began at the end of the 12th century and was completed at the beginning of the 13th century. It was a place for reading, strolling and meditation and was also used for processions and was the point where the main communal canonical areas converged: the dormitory, chapter house, refectory, library…
The perimeter wall of the north and east wings is actually the rear façade of a monumental portico dating from the 1st century BCE. The cloister has a quadrangular floor plan, rib vaults and interesting early Gothic keystones.
Each of its four galleries is divided into six sections in which, under a pointed supporting arch, there are two small, pierced stonework oculi, and three semicircular arches on twin columns with capitals and imposts in white marble with a wonderful variety of biblical, legendary, hagiographic and moral themes.
The Romanesque tradition is evident in the decorative carvings, while the pierced stonework of the oculi and the frieze of the polylobed arches, around the perimeter of the cloister on the outside, are clearly of Islamic origin. The whole ensemble encloses a garden, the hortus conclusus which, with its plants and fountains, evokes the lost earthly Paradise for believers.
The Epiphany portal
In the southeast corner of the quadrangle is a magnificent Romanesque portal carved in white marble at the end of the 12th century, which connects the cloister with the interior of the Cathedral. It consists of a set of flared archivolts framing a tympanum with a mandorla and a representation of the Maiestas Domini - Christ in Majesty - surrounded by the Tetramorph, the zoomorphic portrayal of the evangelists Matthew (Angel), Mark (Lion), Luke (Ox) and John (Eagle).
The mullion’s capital is decorated with scenes of the Birth of Christ, the Magi before Herod and Herodias, and the Epiphany or Adoration of the Magi, while the side capitals are decorated with fauna and flora, an unusual scene with the three Magi sleeping together and being warned by an angel of Herod's intentions, and another with the empty tomb, the shroud, the soldiers and the Three Marys, in reference to the Resurrection of Christ. The portal is surmounted by the Chi Rho or Christogram.
