Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned

Ref: HLBP1/021

This Christian place of worship was originally set up as a Marinid mosque (masŷid) around 1342/50, for the religious needs of the ever-increasing Muslim inhabitants residing in the Turba al-Hamra district of the City of Gibraltar. The mosque was always the centre of any burgeoning urban nucleus and within it would have been carried out all matters of a religious, political, educational and cultural nature. The main religious event took place on the Friday at noon, when the male members of the community would join together in communal prayer and listen to a sermon, which could include both theological and political information.

This mosque appears to have been a rectangular edifice, encompassing the area of what is now most of the western half of the central and side naves of the present Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned, probably measuring some 50 feet by 70 feet. According to specialists in Andalusian history of art, most mosques in smaller townships tended to consist of three naves which were each separated by arcading and this might well have been the case with the mosque in Gibraltar. There would have been a prayer niche (mihrab) in the main prayer hall which would have been inserted in the wall (quibla) facing Mecca, orientated to the southeast.

Notarial document dated 1468 representing the capture of Gibraltar and showing detail of original mosque, later the Church of St. Mary the Crowned.

To the immediate north of the main building, and adjoining it, there was located a courtyard (sahn) measuring some 56 feet by 50 feet, the open central area of which measured some 37 feet by 30 feet. During the 1996 Gibraltar Museum excavations carried out in the area, in connection with the pedestrianisation of Main Street, a water channel running on a gradient towards this original courtyard, was discovered. The channel had been covered by slabs of limestone filled with red sand and contained small fragments of ceramic, many of these decorated in red and blue pigments. The courtyard would have contained the customary ablution facilities necessary for the faithful to enter into a state of purity (tahara), prior to entering the mosque, and would have consisted of some type of fountain or a simple system of faucets. The internal open area would also have been planted with lemon or orange trees, which would later, during the Spanish occupation period, be known as ‘El Patio de Los Naranjos’ (Courtyard of the Orange Trees).

1700 Cathedral of St Mary the Crowned showing the Patio de los Naranjos (Neville Chipulina Blogspot)

On Friday 20th August 1462, Gibraltar was captured by the Castilians and, as was the norm at the time, all Islamic religious buildings on the Rock were immediately converted into places of Christian worship. This was also the case with the main mosque which was subsequently dedicated to the devotion of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Santa María la Coronada (Saint Mary the Crowned). It appears that the said name was given to it on the basis that the Rock had been captured from the Moors on the Octave of the Virgin Mary’s Assumption. However, the title was also traditionally invoked by the Ducal House of Medina Sidonia in respect of other churches founded by it within its own jurisdiction, such as Jimena and Medina Sidonia.

The Rock was retained under the suzerainty of the Duke of Medina Sidonia from June 1467 until its handover to the Spanish Crown on 1st January 1502, with the official ceremony of the handover taking place in the Patio de los Naranjos of the church in the presence of all the members of the City Council. Alonso Hernández del Portillo, writing in 1610-1622, referred to the church, stating that ‘according to tradition, the Catholic Monarchs [Queen Isabella of Castile & King Fernando of Aragon] ordered its construction and the laying out of its ground plan, according to what had been constructed up to then. A main gate, in dressed stone, was erected to the north and the royal arms were inserted and also a substantial tower over it, where the bells and clock are situated, all of it Royal Works. The Catholic Monarchs donated, for this purpose, half of the tithes due to them from this City, on a permanent basis.’

It is difficult, due to lack of existing documentary evidence, to pinpoint the timeline of construction of the different areas of the church, including the interior and exterior works, roof, bell tower and subsequent internal decorations of altars, choirs etc. Certainly, the coat of arms, which can still be seen nowadays in the Cathedral patio, very much ravaged by the elements over the centuries, is not that of the Catholic Monarchs. They actually pertain to their grandson, King Charles I, later the Emperor Charles V, and were utilised by the king between the years 1518 and 1530 and were most probably inserted over the ornamental main gateway adjacent to the north of the main church building.

An engraving of 1801 by the Reverend Cooper Willyams, executed shortly after the end of the Great Siege (1779-1783), shows the gateway with its already truncated bell and clock tower. The pointed archway in the late Isabelline or Gothic-Plateresque style is richly ornamented with elongated quatrefoils, with the tympanum over the massive double doors containing a blind archway, probably serving as a niche for the effigy of a saint.

Engraving of the Spanish Church of St. Mary the Crowned by Cooper Willyams, dated 1800.

The bells which were subsequently set up in the tower have fortunately survived to the present day, despite the almost complete destruction of the church during the Great Siege. According to research carried out by the late George Palao, these are as follows:

(a) One ton ‘Terror’ bell, with the inscription: ‘ix b años net 1308 in p año de mill lrrr † vox mearum torum sit terror demonyorum † mentems mtam apontaveam honorem deo patris it rionem’. This would appear to translate as ‘9 February in the year of peace 1308 – may the voice of my pealing be the terror of demons – placed here with the intention of honouring God the Father’.

(b) ¾ ton bell, with the inscription: ‘his iu a 1576’. This would translate as ‘Jesus-Saviour of Men -Year of 1576’.

(c) ½ ton bell, with the inscription: ‘Mª. FRANCISCUS.CAN.FNDEPORAS.1616’. This would translate as ‘Ave Maria. The Canon Francisco De Porras – 1616’.

(d) 1½ ton bell, with the inscription: ‘IMAJORDOMOELICENCIADO.MONREAL. SIENDO VICARIO ELICENCIADO MENDOCA.MARIA.S.’. This would translate as ‘The Steward & Lawyer Monreal. Being the Vicar (Alonso de) Mendoza. Saint Mary.’ This bell can be dated to 1660.

East bell dated 1616 (Manolo Galliano - Under the Shadow of the Crescent and the Cross)

Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned/Cathedral Bells (George Palao - Our Forgotten Past)

Of the bells, the first and largest of them – the ‘Terror’ bell dating to 1308 was not in fact a church bell but was actually and alarm bell originally located at the top of the Calahorra Tower. The Christians used the bell to warn the inhabitants of any impending attack by the Moors in the year the city had been retaken, which was only a year after the bell had been cast.

Further evidence in support of this bell being at one time located in the tower comes from Spanish sources themselves. Portillo, writing in 1610-1622, stated that there was actually a bell at the top of the Calahorra Tower which was in use as an alarm bell and Father Juan Romero de Figueroa, in his summary of the history of the City of Gibraltar, made reference to ‘the ‘White Tower’ of the Castle, ‘where the Watch Bell is’.

According to Manolo Galliano, ‘both the bell in the Tower of Homage and those set up in the Church of St. Mary the Crowned, were utilised to sound the alarm, should any enemies of the Crown be observed in the neighbourhood. Some confusion often ensued on the similarity in the ringing tones, as is shown in the following notice: ‘Gibraltar 10th April 1619: Information on the ringing in St. Mary the Crowned of Gibraltar regarding escaped Moors, which cause confusion due to its resemblance to the ringing of the alarm call against Moors and other enemies’.

The bell would eventually be erected in the belfry of the Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned after the Great Siege when most of the church, including the belfry was being reconstructed.

Hernández del Portillo continued with his description of the interior of the church, as follows: ‘Only the main chapel of the church has been completed, which is very sumptuous, and if construction were to be ongoing, it would indeed be a most magnificent temple, but no works have been undertaken for a number of years now, due to the manner that it has been carried out and a very beautiful devout altar screen is being constructed together with ornaments and other objects, To the sides of this main chapel there are two smaller ones, which are a place of burial for two knights, already mentioned, Andrés Suazo de Sanabria, in the Gospel side, with such a large and costly altar screen, that it could serve as the High Altar for a more populous city than Gibraltar. That of Francisco de Mendoza is on the Epistle side. Apart from these, another chapel was built in the cloister or Patio de los Naranjos, founded and paid for by a knight, Gonzalo de Piña, for his burial and that of the Piña lineage, these being one of the principal and most ancient noble families of this City.’

On 1st August 1704 (Gregorian calendar), during the War of the Spanish Succession, a combined English and Dutch Confederate fleet sailed into the harbour with the intention of capturing the fortress for King Charles III. Following the refusal by the City Council to cede the place, a massive bombardment was carried out on the City and its fortifications with its capitulation taking place a few days later, on 4th August.

Padre Juan Romero de Figueroa, the Vicar of the Church of St. Mary the Crowned, wrote about the event in the church registers as follows: ‘Fatality. On 1st August the English fleet arrived. Confusion and horror. On Saturday the 2nd, they discharged bombshells at midnight. Unspeakable weeping and lamentation, anguish and grief. Bombardment of cannon balls. On Saturday, 3rd August, a bombardment took place from 5 o’clock until one o’clock in the afternoon. 28,000 shots as well as bombshells were fired, and on this day the fortress capitulated and surrendered.’

Under the terms of the Articles of Capitulation, the inhabitants were given the choice of either to remain, with no alteration effected to their religion or tribunals, or to depart with their goods and chattels. However, the horror of the bombing and the many subsequent incidents of looting and rape by the invading forces, convinced the bulk of the inhabitants to move out of the Rock. To ensure the safe custody of the bulkier sacred images and large amounts of precious liturgical objects from the many churches and convents, these were mainly stored in the Church of St. Mary the Crowned under the responsibility of its parish priest, Padre Romero. Over the succeeding years, most of these items would be transferred to Spain surreptitiously and would end up in the similar named Church of St. Mary the Crowned, set up by the former Spanish inhabitants of the Rock in nearby San Roque.

Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned/Spanish Church James Gabriel Montresor 1753 Map

During the course of the sieges of 1704/05 or 1727 (Eleventh & Twelfth Sieges), the City of Gibraltar suffered extensive damage, especially in its northern district, although the church itself escaped mostly unscathed. This would, unfortunately, not be the case during the next massive attack by joint Spanish and French forces during the Great Siege of 1779/83, when the building was almost completely destroyed by the effects of bombardment.

The Minorcan parish priest, Padre Francisco Messa, wrote a very detailed diary of these events and of the effects of the war on the fabric of this very ancient building. He stated that, in the first instance, a large part of the church was requisitioned by the Military in order to store supplies. Furthermore, at the very start of the siege, orders were also issued by the Governor to have the church tower dismantled as it could serve as a distinctive landmark for the Spaniards when firing. Much worse was to come on 17th April 1781, when the continuous bombardment caused such a conflagration that the church, which had already suffered considerable damage through the heavy shelling, burnt for three solid days. Colonel John Drinkwater, who served on the Rock at the time, later wrote that ‘in the afternoon, the shells of the besiegers set fire to the stores in the Spanish church. Parties were instantly detached from the main guard, 72nd Regiment and other corps in town, to remove the provisions. The Lieutenant Governor with his aide de camp was present, encouraging the men to perform their duty with expedition.’

Following the end of the Great Siege, all that remained of the Church of St. Mary the Crowned, were the four exterior walls, some of the central columns, the vaulted ceilings of the main and side altars and the truncated bell tower. By 1785, only the principal altars had been restored with the ongoing works accelerating shortly after, once funds had been obtained and skilled workers becoming more readily available. In due course, plans, elevations and sections for alterations to the building were ordered to be drawn up by the Governor, and these were executed under the supervision of the Chief Engineer of Gibraltar, Colonel William Fyers, on 10th September 1800. These works included the demolition of the original belfry and the construction of a new Italianate style bell and clock tower on the site of the courtyard. Agreement was conditional on the demolition of a sizable section of the main body of the church, to the west, for the widening of the main thoroughfare.

Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned/Spanish Church following alterations carried out in 1800-10 (Manolo Galliano - Under the Shadow of the Crescent and the Cross)

St. Mary the Crowned showing truncated façade following the alterations carried out in 1800.

The new frontage of the church, replacing the original Gothic façade, had a more austere classical look, consisting of a large triangular pediment supported by classical pilasters. The original east end of its truncated interior, with its fasciculated pillars and lierne vaulting, was preserved, although the new construction consisted of a plain barrel vault supported by Doric style arches.

Over the next two centuries, other substantial renovation works have been carried out both in the interior and exterior of the building, making it a more attractive church building. All in all, this Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned, which has evolved from a medieval mosque to become the principal Christian place of worship through centuries of Spanish and British occupation, continues to be the hub of the Roman Catholic community of Gibraltar. Despite its relatively small overall size and the simplicity in architecture, as compared to other more important religious constructions, it has nevertheless become a venerable and worthy survivor of the strife and battles which has marked the history of the Rock across the ages.