 |
|
Burgos
The Cathedral of Burgos
Completed in 1222, the Cathedral of Burgos demonstrates the influence of the pilgrimmage trail on the architecture found in the cities through which it passed. The trail, which brought large numbers of European pilgrims from France to Santiago de Compostela each year, is widely accepted as a prime contributor to the spread of French literature, art and architecture into Spain. The Cathedral of Burgos is modeled after the French cathedral of Bourges and reflects the Gothic style made popular in Spain by the Cistercian Order some time earlier.
Burgos and Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar
More widely known as "The Cid", Ruy Díaz was born in Vivar, a small town roughly six miles north of Burgos, in ca. 1043. An aristocrat by birth and an expert soldier, Ruy Díaz worked in the service of Castilian King Alfonso VI until his exile in the summer of 1081. The conqueror of Muslim Valencia in 1094, he died in 1099. Ibn Bassam, a contemporary of the Cid who had no reason to praise him, wrote in that year that "this man, the scourge of his time, by his appetite for glory, by the prudent steadfastness of his character, and by his heroic bravery, was one of the miracles of God".
|
El Camino de Santiago
