The Mozarabic chapel is located at the southeast corner, and incorporates the foundations of an unbuilt second tower. The chapel was named originally the Chapel of the Corpus Christi in 1500 by Cardinal Cisneros. Its purpose was to provide a worship place for followers of the Hispano-Mozarabic rites. Centuries earlier, in 20 March 1101, King Alfonso VI had given certain privileges to the Mozarabes of Toledo in exchange for tribute. In 1371, King Henry II confirmed these privileges. Having founded this chapel, Cisneros encouraged the restoration and republishing of the codices, breviaries and missals of their rites; he seems to have aimed to conciliate that subset of the faithful. This supposition is reinforced by notice of the large sum he had to pay the Cathedral Chapter in order to do the work of joining the old chapter house and the minor chapels. The huge sum of 3800 gold florins was raised, suggesting there were sufficient local patrons in town to support the effort. Services in the Mozarabic Rite are still performed in this chapel.
The chapel design encompasses a square floor plan under an octagonal dome. A coffered ceiling of Mozarabic style has been lost (perhaps in the fire in 1620, or by later remodeling). The current dome was designed in the 17th century by the son of El Greco, Jorge Manuel Theotocopoulus; it displays eight sections and a large roof lantern cupola. In the interior, Cardinal Cisneros commissioned Juan de Borgoña to depict highlights of the conquest of Oran.
The Gothic ironwork screen was fashioned by Juan Francés (1524), and incorporates among its ornamental elements the coat of arms of Cardinal Cisneros. The mosaic crucifix dates to the 18th century. It is said that it was brought from Rome and that the ship was shipwrecked in transit, leaving the image for a time at the bottom of the sea until it was recovered. The crucifix proper is made of a single piece, carved in Mexican fennel root. Another Gothic screen, the work of the Toledan Julio Pascual, separates the choir from the rest of the chapel.
Read more about this topic: Cathedral Of Toledo, Interior, The Interior Chapels: Overview
Famous quotes containing the word chapel:
“I never went near the Wellesley College chapel in my four years there, but I am still amazed at the amount of Christian charity that school stuck us all with, a kind of glazed politeness in the face of boredom and stupidity. Tolerance, in the worst sense of the word.... How marvelous it would have been to go to a women’s college that encouraged impoliteness, that rewarded aggression, that encouraged argument.”
—Nora Ephron (b. 1941)