Holy Cathedral Basilica of the Incarnation of Malaga, Spain

The main mosque of Málaga had its entrance on what is now Císter Street, where the Church of the Sagrario now stands.  When King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella conquered Málaga, they ordered the Islamic temple to be converted into a Christian church.  The Gothic portal through which the church is accessed is the oldest part of the building.  It is believed to have been opened in 1498 at the base of the minaret of the old mosque, under the orders of the first Bishop of Málaga, Diego Ramírez de Villaescusa.  The portal is a masterpiece of Isabelline Gothic architecture. In 1487, the Catholic Monarchs captured the city, and six months later the Great Mosque was consecrated as Santa María de la Encarnación (Saint Mary of the Incarnation).  Its small size led Bishops Diego Ramírez de Vinuesa and César Riario to build a larger mosque, of which only the north wall door of the Sagrario (Tabernacle), known as the Puerta del Perdón (Gate of Forgiveness), remains.  This Gothic door dates from the 16th century.  The rest of the building is Islamic and Mudéjar in style, although it underwent extensive renovations in the 17th century, after the completion of the first phase of the current Málaga Cathedral. The portal of the Tabernacle stands out from the rest of the façade.  Framed by pinnacles, it is essentially iconographic and narrative, laden with altarpieces and vestments from the period, as explained by the Cathedral’s Building Surveyor, Fernando Ramos de Rivas.  “The Virgin Mary is depicted on the right, and on the left, the Archangel Gabriel.  This represents the moment when the Word became flesh, and it is highly symbolic.  The name that the Catholic Monarchs gave to cathedrals after the Reconquista, the Annunciation or Incarnation, is a distinguishing element with respect to Islam.”  The precursors of the Church are located in the four archivolts, and above the keystone of the arch is God the Father, omnipresent, with a scepter and an orb in his hand.  To the left is the coat of arms of Cardinal Riario, and to the right, the cardinal’s seal.  At the top are sculpted figures from the Reconquista, such as Cardinal Mendoza with an angel on the left; On the right is the first bishop of Málaga, Pedro de Toledo y Ovalle, who was a canon of Seville Cathedral and almoner to the Catholic Monarchs, depicted “assisted by the apostle and standard-bearer of the Reconquista, Saint James.”  Above the arch, one can discern “a stone that was a Virgin of the O, a Virgin in a state of good expectation.”

Construction was halted because, according to engineer Ramos, they realized they were building the cathedral from north to south, “when every monotheistic temple is oriented from east to west; moreover, the style was already outdated, as the Renaissance was prevalent in the rest of Europe.”  Thus, what was intended to be the Cathedral of Santa María de la Encarnación became the Church of Santa María, and later the first parish in the city center, until the center became depopulated and its parishioners were incorporated into the Church of Santiago, where the Cathedral Chapter even relocated when the second phase of construction made the original church uninhabitable. Beyond the Gate of Forgiveness, in the gardens of the Tabernacle, formerly the ablutions courtyard, the sgraffito façade displays Marian symbols that have sometimes been misinterpreted.  A solitary stone depicts another Annunciation, and near the main entrance is the cathedral’s first sundial.  Today, the Tabernacle is considered just another chapel.  Inside, Masses are celebrated beneath the plaster vaults, designed by the architect Zuzurrunzaga, which conceal the original Mudéjar wooden structure.  The altar dome is Renaissance in design with Baroque muqarnas, as the last alterations date from the 18th century.  It was then that the minaret of the tower was demolished, and a century later, in 1862, the seminary and the choir school attached to the church also disappeared.  It still remains and you can see the outline of its structure on one side, which connected the Bishopric to the original cathedral.That same year, on the occasion of a visit by Queen Isabella II, the steps leading to the Sagrario church on Santa María Street were removed, “because the royal motorcade couldn’t fit through the passageway, and the portico looked like an altarpiece hanging on the wall,” Ramos explained.  The stone steps weren’t reinstalled until 1954, but the traffic made it difficult for pedestrians to pass.  In the 1990s, Mayor Celia Villalobos permanently closed the street to traffic. The Tabernacle and the entire cathedral complex, built upon foundations steeped in history, “including, it is thought, the remains of a Visigothic church,” are listed as Cultural Heritage Sites.  The portal underwent a 19th-century restoration using hot micro-ceramics that have flooded the stone, which is also eroded by humidity, as an underground river from the Montes de León region flows beneath the foundations.  In 2020, during a series of surveys being carried out on the foundations of the temple, Paleochristian remains were discovered, confirming a Christian presence in the vicinity of the cathedral from a very early date.