San Francisco de Grande

Our last stop on our second day was at San Francisco de Grande, just down the street from the Cathedral.  We arrived and found the church closed up, but the sign indicated that it would reopen shortly. This was lucky for us because it was getting hot and the group was getting tired.

Front view of the church.  It was not remarkable from the outside, but quite beautiful inside.

The side view from another garden area gives more of an idea of the age of the church.  The guy who opened up the church for us was very nice and quite proud of the church.  I asked for 12 tickets in Spanish and he asked me something back.  I understood, but answered in English.  He said something further in Spanish and I again answered in English.  At that point he joked with me about understanding but not speaking Spanish.  He said I should be able to understand the guide that would lead us around the church, but I also bought a small guide book.

The front alter

The pulpits were quite beautiful.  Even in the murky lighting, the gold relief on the stone work gleamed.

This photo does not do the dome Justice.  It is the third largest cathedral dome after St Peters in Rome and another one.  It is larger than St. Paul's in London if that is a useful comparison.  Unfortunately you cannot get any higher to look at it more closely.

The guide talked about each of the different chapels around the sides of the main nave.  He spent a lot of time talking about the various famous artists and architects.  I'm more interested in the symbolism and meaning of the art, so I kind of tuned out a little, but could mostly understand him.  I particularly liked this painting.  The paintings in the space seemed well preserved and were not overly dark, as many aged paintings are.

the guide took us back behind the main alter to the sacristy where the priests robe themselves for ceremonies.  The high backed wooden benches you can see are on all the surrounding walls.  I couldn't find anything that indicated what their purpose was, so afterwards I approached the ticket guy and he explained that they were originally from the choir area in the organ loft, but had been taken out and placed back in the sacristy to be conserved.