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But we returned to take photos in the twilight of the multicolored marble Plaza de Santa Maria separating the cathedral from the Renaissance town hall across the street. As evening fell, it became a busy place as the townsfolk ended their siesta.

Here's another view of the Santa Maria Plaza with an inset of the Ayuntamiento (city hall). A busy street and some construction keep this from being a pedestrian's Eden but it is still a very pleasant civic space.

While the plaza anchors the site in symmetrically patterned marble, the cathedral rises in limestone monotone -- but with reliefs and statues contributing to one of the most important Renaissance buildings in Andalusia. Each side is anchored by a tower which increases its ornamentation as it rises.

A view looking up: I've never been able to figure out what the red stenciling does, but it's found on many of the Renaissance buildings in this area. Note how the flat wall explodes into Corinthian columns and high reliefs presaging the Baroque.

Some of the details of the top (fifth) level of the twin spires. While many architects rightfully share the credit for areas of the cathedral, The overall integrity of design was the work of a town native, Andrés de Vandelvira, who created many Renaissance buildings and their features in this area. His 16th century plans laid out the entire cathedral which was then built over three centuries. At each stage of its long build, the town had a usable church. When it finished 164 years later, the place had surprising consistency.

Many church towers in this part of Spain provide weather vanes and clocks. (You wondered what we did before we had 24 hour news channels, didn't you). This site held a mosque which the conquering Christians replaced with a Gothic church. However, the Moors came back in the next century and sacked the place so the Christians rebuilt -- only to lose the entire structure around 1492, probably due to parts of it collapsing. A better architect was needed!

The site had been constrained by the lack of space within the city walls. But the expulsion of the Moors from Granada in 1492 made it safe to expand the town, freeing up sufficient space for Vandelvira to create his masterpiece -- with a little help from his friends. The north tower holds nine bells; the other none.

The west facade we see here was built last and the detailed design is by Eufrasio Lopez de Rojas. Construction started in 1667, pretty much the heyday of the Italian Baroque which the Catholic hierarchy was then pushing. The more restrained towers tie it back to Vandelvira's more sober Renaissance vision. Here the almost square central section between those towers sports three tiers above three doors to allow for extensive statuary and reliefs.

Here's another view with balconies and Corinthian columns. (Of course, not, but some feel that this obscure Roman church, finished about 50 years earlier, inspired the Jaen Cathedral's facade.)

These carvings are almost all by Pedro Roldán whose masterpiece is the painted and carved main altar in the Seville cathedral. Across the first tier are three reliefs over each doorway. A muscular Archangel Michael (Miguel) guards the left (or Gospel) door, also called the door of the faithful.

At center, Roldán gives us a rationally exuberant Mary being taken to heaven. (You're seeing two Assumptions here for the benefit of photographers -- these pictures were taken less than an hour apart. With all the widgets on digital cameras, never assume that sunlight doesn't matters the most!)

The right (Epistle) doorway (also called the door of the clergy) contains one of the few carvings not done by Roldán. Instead, it's by Lucas González and depicts Santa Catalina, here as a gentle but successful warrior. Like the other two doorway reliefs, it's framed by the high Corinthian columns.

Now to the middle tier...

...where we see the Corinthian capitals which frame...

...this central doorway with two cherubs holding a cloth with Christ's visage. It's central not just to the facade, but to the entire cathedral. This is the balcony of Santa Rostro, literally the "holy face" but in in English the "Veil of Veronica." This was the cloth offered by Veronica to Christ as he carried his cross to Calvary. He left the impression of his face on it and this miracle is now one of the stations of the cross. (The name Veronica means "true image" and the whole episode was unheard of before the middle ages, but it makes for good architecture even if suspect religious history.) It's a long story, but the impressionable people of Jaén have this relic --one of at least four originals-- and display it occasionally from this balcony.) The veil holds the center or the church both outside and in: If we were to draw a line through this door through the tabernacle and onto the rear wall, we'd be in the chapel of the Holy Veil -- the axis of Veronica.

Before we throw in the towel on this facade, let's look at the 7 of the 9 statues of the top tier. Here Roldán has carved images of the four evangelists as well as some of the Doctors of the Church. At center is one of the town's most popular saints...

...King Fernando III (also known as the saint) who took Jaén back from the Moors in 1246. San Fernando consolidated much of Spain except Granada (which agreed to be his vassalage). For 2 1/2 centuries, Spain was pretty quiet until his namesake Ferdinand and Isabella finished the job in 1492. Don't let this statue fool you, he is not the patron saint of bowling even though California's San Fernando valley is named after him. As is the case here, he's often shown holding a globe. (And you thought the world was flat in the 13th century before global warming started pumping it up!)

And now for something completely different. If you haven't had enough cathedral facade yet, try our pages on this Gothic jewel: Italy's Orvieto cathedral at: http://www. dickschmitt.com/travels/Italy/umbria/Orvieto/OrvietoDuomo.html

Or if you'd rather stay in Jaén, let's go into the exquisite interior of this 3-aisle church. Inside, this is another Renaissance box -- pretty much a rectangle with three long nave aisles, the center pretty much blocked by a huge choir and sanctuary. On each side are long aisles which soar upward on Corinthian pillars.

Looking up around the choir area: José Gallego was responsible for much of the interior decoration as the cathedral came to its long-awaited conclusion.

The choir starts near the rear of the church and extends nearly to the sanctuary. The inside is wooden and locked behind a grille; its outside is beautifully carved stone, again the work of José Gallego.

Here's the neo-classically restrained and perfectly symmetrical back of the choir (trascoro) which contains its own chapel and decorated grille. The painting of the Holy Family is by Salvador Maella, an 18th century Spaniard.

While the neo-classic choir structure defines the interior of the nave, the edges are lined with baroque chapels. Let's go back outside a minute and look at some of the plain exterior walls. We see a hint of supporting buttresses poking out from the side. Gothic-inspired cathedrals in eastern Spain of this era often put most of the buttress inside the church. While this cuts down on the width of the nave, it makes for many small rooms on the interior walls which are then turned into elaborate chapels, in this case, 17 of them.

At Jaén, these chapel rooms typically culminate with a golden Spanish retable which fills the rear wall above the side altar-- and then centers on an oil painting to bring the elaborate construction to a clear focal point. Here's Spain's favorite archangel, Michael, in his chapel with retable by the Serville painter Bernardo Lorente Germán.

Another baroque jewel is this 18th century Chapel of the Saint Benedict with Pedro Duque Cornejo's statue of the saint. Cornejo is best known for the work of the last ten years of his life: the magnificent choir stalls in nearby Cordoba. He was the premier sculptor of 1750 Andalusia when the the Americas were pumping wealth into this area's economy. Above is one of his last works, including scenes from his life carved in the oval reliefs.

This picture is a composite of the sides and retable of the 18th century baroque Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows, complete with the statue of Jesus' corpse above the marble altar. The central painting is by Domingo Martinez, a member of the school of the famous Seville painter Murillo. Note the bits of Renaissance curved ceiling showing on each of the sides. In keeping with the "sorrows" theme, each side contains paintings by Francisco Pancorbo from scenes of Christ's Passion which are spread throughout these chapels. Here we have the Crucifixion (left) and the Descent from the Cross (right). In contrast, the paintings beneath them are of the four evangelists and ascribed to the school of the great Spanish tenebrist Jusepe de Ribera.

Chapel of the Holy Veil -- Santo Rostro. (To see this in detail, exit slideview mode and click on the magnifying glass.)

This crazy pastiche was about the best we could do given the unrelenting grille protecting this neoclassic chapel. On the left wall is a dim Annunciation by Cellini; unseen at right is a Titian. Two angels on the tabernacle doors by Sebastian Martinez protect an image of the famous relic. Most of the paintings and reliefs are by Sebastián de Solís who came to Jaén in 1578 and completed many of the art works in this and other area churches. Note the continuation of the Passion scenes in the four oils.