Correos dedicates a new stamp within the Artistic Heritage series to two characteristic elements of Sasamón in Burgos: the Collegiate Church of Santa María la Real and the Arco de San Miguel.
The Arch of San Miguel: 1 km from Sasamón, next to the BU-610 highway, and next to the Brullés River - a tributary of the Odra -, is this late Romanesque doorway, which is the remains that have remained of the ancient town of San Miguel de Mazarreros, abandoned in the 15th century. Of a noble factory, some capitals with diffuse iconography stand out. The arch, with six archivolts and an incomplete dust guard, are the remains of the old church of the disappeared town, probably from the end of the 12th century.
In 2019, a rehabilitation project was approved to preserve the stone, repoint the stonework and eliminate vegetation.
They say around here that, in his honor, the façade of San Miguel was built in the current church of Sasamón, a façade completed in 1504, according to its cartouche.
The Collegiate Church of Santa María La Real: Originating from a primitive church, which enjoyed episcopal status, between the 11th and 12th centuries, whose figure was more important than Bishop Muño.
The current church was basically built in two constructive impulses, the first at the beginning of the 13th century, where a factory with three apses and three naves was built, with a transitional façade in its western part, surely influenced by the Las Huelgas workshops. Royals of Burgos.
But it will be in the final years of the 13th century when the great Gothic extension is made, the result of the constructive effort of the Catedra and Las Huelgas workshops, to build a chancel with five polygonal apses projecting in plan, whose main chapel is greater development due to the use of its presbyteral section, and two superimposed levels of openings, which refers us to the abbey church of Las Huelgas. All the chapels are covered with pointed vaults, buttresses on the outside and use of flying buttresses. Inside they communicate through pointed arches.
The most unique part of the temple is its transept, made up of two naves of different sizes. The largest, which communicates with the chapels at the head, is made up of five sections covered with simple cross vaults and a ligature rib, culminating in both walls with rose windows without tracery.
The smaller nave, further to the west, served to connect an existing factory to another that they added, where the transition from cruciform supports of the first period to robust cylindrical pillars that receive the arches in high columns without decoration on corbels is shortened. and capitals.
The cloister, from the beginning of the 14th century, cousins of the Burgos cloister, of the cloister of the Pamplona Cathedral, at least in its East gallery, and of the cloister of the Oliva Monastery, collects the ideas of the French-rayonaut Gothic.
At the end of the 15th century it assumed a new roof, and perhaps a high cloister, probably from the Colonia workshops, while a nave attached to the epistle nave and a doorway were built, all of which was completed around 1504. Of note, from the Colonia circle, are the pulpit and the baptismal font, also works from the late 15th century. In the 16th century, a fantastic sacristy was added, with an interesting doorway by Francisco de Colonia.
Several altarpieces and sculptures adorn the complex, highlighting a Plateresque altarpiece dedicated to Santiago around 1510, the work of Felipe de Vigarny's circle, as well as a sculpture of Saint Michael, the work of Diego de Siloé around 1519, as well as some wooden processional litters. , work of Sebastián de Salinas in 1561.
For all these reasons, the church of Santa María la Real de Sasamón is one of the most important Gothic complexes in the province of Burgos.
