00:00The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, Spanish, Catedral Basilica de Nuestra
00:14Señora del Pilar, is a Catholic church in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain.
00:20The basilica's titular is the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Pillar,
00:24praised as, Mother of the Hispanic Peoples, by Pope John Paul II.
00:29It is reputed to be the first church dedicated to Mary in history.
00:33Local traditions take the history of this basilica to the spread of Christianity in
00:37Roman Spain attributing to an apparition to St. James the Great, the apostle who is believed
00:42by tradition to have brought Christianity to the country.
00:45This is the only reported apparition of Mary to have occurred before she believed the assumption.
00:51Many of the kings of Spain, and many other foreign rulers and saints have paid their
00:54devotion before this statue of Mary.
00:57St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Ávila, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and Blessed William
01:03Joseph Chaminade are among the foremost ones.
01:06The Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar is one of two minor basilicas in the city of
01:10Zaragoza, and is co-cathedral of the city alongside the nearby Liceo de Zaragoza.
01:16The architecture is of Baroque style, and the present building was predominantly built
01:19between 1681 and 1872.
01:23According to ancient local tradition, soon after the crucifixion and resurrection of
01:27Jesus, St. James was preaching the gospel in Spain, but was disheartened because of
01:31the failure of his mission.
01:34Tradition holds that on the 2nd of January 40 AD, while he was deep in prayer by the
01:38banks of the Ebro, the Mother of God appeared to him and gave a column of jasper and instructed
01:43him to build a church in her honor.
01:45This place is to be my house, and this image and column shall be the title and altar of
01:49the temple that you shall build.
01:52First Chapel About a year after the apparition, James is believed to have had a small chapel
01:56built in Mary's honor, the first church ever dedicated to her.
02:00After James returned to Jerusalem, he was executed by Herod Agrippa in about 44 AD.
02:06The first apostle to be martyred for his faith, several of his disciples took his body and
02:10returned it for final burial in Spain.
02:13This first chapel was eventually destroyed with various other Christian shrines, but
02:17the statue in the pillar stayed intact under the protection of the people of Zaragoza.
02:22Mudéjar Church of the Pillar in 1647 by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo
02:27Numerous churches have been built upon this site through the years.
02:31The tiny chapel built by St. James later gave way to a basilica-like enclosure during Constantine
02:36the First's time, subsequently being transformed into Romanesque, then Gothic then Mudéjar
02:41styles.
02:42The venerated shrines at Zaragoza date to the Christian reconquest by King Alfonso I
02:47in 1118.
02:48A church in the Romanesque style was built under the pontificate of Pedro de Labrana
02:52VIII, who is also credited with the oldest written testimonial to the Virgin at Zaragoza.
02:58A tympanum on the south wall of this Romanesque church still stands.
03:03Basilica of the Pillar in 1806, before the four high neo-Mudéjar spears were built in
03:071872.
03:09Most of the angular towers that enhance the exterior volume date to the 20th century,
03:14and were not completed until 1961.
03:17Engraving by Robert Daudet and Louis-François Lejeune.
03:20The Romanesque church was damaged by fire in 1434, and reconstruction began in the Mudéjar
03:25Gothic style.
03:27A Gothic-style church was built in the 15th century but only a few parts of it remain
03:31intact or were later restored, including the choir stand and the altarpiece in alabaster
03:35by Damien Formant.
03:37Detail of the fresco of the Queen of Martyrs in the dome, painted by Francisco Goya The
03:42present spacious church in Baroque style was begun in 1681, 6, by Charles II.
03:48King of Spain and completed in 1686.
03:51The early constructions were supervised by Felipe Sánchez and were later modified by
03:55Francisco Herrera the Younger under John of Austria the Younger.
03:59That is all.
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