Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-17
IT HAS NO CATHEDRAL
Philip II Planned to Build
One in Madrid,
ALFONSO'S FOND WISH
WANTED TO RAISE A MEMORIAL
OF MERCEDES.
Proposed National Pantheon-UnabIe
to Find the Graves of Great Men
The Monuments of the Capital.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.

BY WILLIAM Il. CURl1o.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record-Herald.
MADRID, November Z, 1903.
Although the capital of the kingdom,
Madrid has no cathedral, while some small
er Cities like Salamanca, Saragossa and
Cadiz, have two But a cathedral is scarce
ly needed in Madrid in Spain, for there
are more than sixty scattered through the
kingdom, with nine archbishops and forty
five bishops, for population of nineteen
millions.
Ever since the seat of government was
| removed here, however, there have been
| plans for building a cathedral worthy of
| the country, as If 1t were possible for hu-
| man genius to surpass those of Toledo and
| Seville. In 1915 Philip II appropriated
| u, 0OG ducats from the archiepiscopal rev.
| enues for a cathedral at Madrid, and the
| plans were partially completed, but he
| abandoned 1t because, as we are told, he
was afraid 1T would divert attention from
his Escurial. In 1923 the queen of Philip
| " renewed the scheme, and obtained 10000
| ducats from the royal treasury. The cor
| ner stone was laid and still lies where she
! placed it, but work was abandoned. Sew
eral of her successors have renewed it.
Alfonso's Determination.
| ALFONSO All CdTTlSu II ldTtIieT tHdI any VI
| his predecessors The story goes that when
he discovered that the body of his beloved
Mercedes would not be permitted to rest
| in the royal mausoleum at the Escurial, he
| determined to build her a tomb worthy of
her virtues and his love. He called to-
| gether the greatest architects in Spain, tore
away the ancient church Of the Virgin de
| la Almudena, and a part Of the old armory
which stood next to the palace on the
south, and directed the Marquis de Cubas,
who was eminent as an architect, to erect
there the cathedral of cathedrals and to
place the ashes of Mercedes under the
great altar.
The work was begun In 1876 with great
energy; the foundations were laid and the
stone work was carried about four feet
above the ground There 1t stopped and
there 1t stands today. / cannot see that
any progress has been made since was In
Ma drid eleven years ago.
Alfonso is dead, and no one inherits his
sentiment for Mercedes. His second queen,
the pious Christina. has done many tender
acts In memory of her husbands sweet
heart, and has shown extraordinary con-
sideration for everything that reminds her
of the romance of his life, but she Is trying
to build church of her own at the other
end Of the city for reasons l will explain to
you later. Few other people in Madrid care
for a. cathedral.
Thete is less piety here than in any town
In Spain. Everybody Is absorbed by politics.
and unless there Is some great religious
awakening like that on the day of Pente-
cost the boards that protect the founda-
tons of the proposed cathedral need not be
removed
There are numerous churches In Madrid;
plenty of them; but they are of no archtec-
tural merit, and, with one or two excep-
tons, are decorated in very bad taste. The
only one worth mentioning is San Francis
co ell Grande. which is situated in the older
part of the city, and the most unfa shona-
BILE quarter among the slums and tenement
houses, upon the site of convent which
the monks say was founded by San Fran
cisco himself when he came to Madrid in
the thirteenth century. The building was
pulled down in 17G0, and the present vast
| rotunda, 1913 feet high and 125 feet in d.
| ameter, surrounded by seven elaborate chap
els. designed and erected upon the
| plans of a Franciscan monk. Father Ca
baZdS.
Proposed Pantheon.
| About twenty years ago 1t was restored
| and enriched by most gorgeous decorations
| the money being furnished by vote of par
! lament for the purpose of making 1t a ma
| tional pantheon. and 1t is modelled upon the
| lines of the Pantheon at Rome. 1t is used
| for cathedral purposes, and grand cere-
monial mass was celebrated here at the re-
| cent coronation of the king.
| In the work of reconstruction provision
| was made for 300 tombs. Vaults of brick
| were constructed. laid under the floor ready
| for the caskets of dead statesmen, soldiers
| authors, poets, painters and others whom
| the people delight to honor, and law was
passed by the cortes appointing commits.
sion to hunt up the bones of great Span-
| iards and bring them there This decree
has been imperfectly executed. In 1869 the
remains of about thirty famous men. in
GLIDING those of Gonzalo de Cordoya, eel
| Gran Captain" were brought there, but
several of them were taken away again on
| the remonstrance of their descendants and
the people of other cities and provinces.
Unable to Find the Graves.
| Strange to say. the committee reported
that 1t was unable to find the resting places
of the great soldier Guzman of Cervantes,
Lope de Vega. Herrera, velasquez Murillo
and several other famous authors and
painters. Cervantes was born at Alcala,
| twenty-one miles from Madrid. and was
baptized there October 8. 1547. He lived In