page_title: Sancha Raimúndez
section_title: Death and burial
hierarchical_section_title: Sancha Raimúndez / Death and burial
context_page_description: Sancha Raimúndez of León was a Leonese infanta, the daughter of Queen Urraca and Raymond of Burgundy and the older sister of Alfonso VII of León.
context_section_description: She died on 28 February 1159 and was buried in the Pantheon of Kings in San Isidoro de León, where her mother, Queen Urraca had been interred. The remains of the Infanta Sancha were deposited in a stone tomb with the following epitaph in Latin:
  Hesperiae speculum, decus orbis, gloria Regni, HIC REQUIESCIT REGINA DOMNA SANCIA, SOROR IMPERATORIS justitia culmen, et pietatis apex Santia pro ADEFONSI FILIA URRACHAE ET RAIMUNDI, HAEC STATUIT meritis inmensum nota per orbem, proh dolor¡ exiguo ORDINEM REGULARIUM CANONICORUM IN ECCLESIA ISTA, ET clauderis in tumulo, Sol bis sexcentos, QUIA DICEBAT BEATUM ISIDORUM SPONSUM SUUM, demtis tribus, egerat annes, cum pia subcubuit VIRGO OBIIT ERA M. C. LX VII PRID. KAL. MARTII finis erat Februarii.
  During the War of Independence, the Pantheon of Kings in San Isidoro de León became a stable and the bodies buried there were removed from their graves by French soldiers and piled in a corner after being picked up by the canons of the collegiate and brought to the church of Santa Marina de León, except the Infanta Sancha, who because of the veneration that she professed, was picked apart and taken to the house of a resident of León, where she remained until the end of the war, which was returned to the church of San Isidoro in the presence of the authorities of the city, being placed the mummy in a tomb, but without cover, as the cover of the real tomb of the infanta appeared several years later halved.
  In 1858, Queen Isabel II of Spain visited the Basilica of San Isidoro de Leon and the Infanta Sancha's mummy, which was naked. So when the Queen returned to Madrid, she sent a gold brocade robe for the mummy to wear, but the cloak disappeared during the ???Revolutionary Sexenio??? apparently stolen by the provincial governor, who loaned it so he could make a copy of it, so that his wife did a replica for her, and yet never returned.
  During the study of the tombs of the Pantheon of Kings in San Isidoro de León, completed in 1997, it was determined that the body of the Infanta lay incorrupted, as did that of the Infante Ferdinand, son of Ferdinand II of León, who also lies buried there. Placed on the cushion where the head of the Infanta Sancha lay was found a letter, dated December 22, 1868, which explained: "In the year 1868, during the reign of Doña Isabel II, the Pantheon of the Kings was found in a completely abandoned state, and the body of the queen Doña Sancha, perfectly preserved in a state of mummification, was found completely nude. The Pantheon was restored by the effort of the governor of this province, D. Manuel Rodríguez Monje, and the body of the queen Doña Isabel II was dressed in linen donated for this purpose by his daughter Doña Carmen."
  Nevertheless, various sources indicate that the Infanta Sancha was buried in the Cathedral of Zamora, while others say she was buried in the church of San Cosme and San Damián de Covarrubias. On the left wall of the chancel of the Cathedral Zamora is placed an epitaph, composed in 1620-1621 by Alonso de Remesal, in which it is stated that the Infanta Sancha was buried there:
  HIC IACET ILLUSTRIS DOMINA SANCIA INFANTISSA SOROR ADEPHONSI IMPERATORIS
  Moreover, in the Collegiate of Covarrubias is placed a stone tomb, dating from the fifteenth century, which is supposed to contain the remains of the Infanta Sancha, who granted Fueros to the town of Covarrubias in the year 1148. About the lid of the tomb attributed to the infant appears abbey and the cross carved on the front is placed quartered shield of Castile and León, which was awarded to the infanta Sancha by her brother the king.
  In the Monastery of Santa Maria de La Santa Espina, located in the province of Valladolid, near the altarpiece, on the Gospel side, is placed a statue depicting praying the Infanta Sancha Raimúndez, made of alabaster, although the infant was not buried there.
caption: The Royal Pantheon.
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