Burgos - Cathedral

Castile and Mauricio, the Bishop of Burgos. Ferdinand had just married Barbarossa´s granddaughter Beatrice of Swabia (aka "Elisabeth of Swabia") and wanted a cathedral, reflecting his new role in the European power game.

The former Romanesque cathedral got demolished and on July 20, 1221, the construction of the new Gothic started under the guidance of an unknown French architect. After nine years, the chevet was completed and the high altar was consecrated. Then the construction stopped for about 200 years.

Attending the Council of Basel (aka "Council of Florence") in 1435 bishop (and diplomat) Alfonso de Cartagena saw the just completed, elegant towers of the Basel Minster. When he returned to Burgos he was accompanied by German architect Johannes von Köln (aka "Juan de Colonia"), who probably knew the blueprints of the towers, planned for the Cathedral of Cologne. Under his guidance the towers of the Cathedral were completed in open tracery. He was followed on the construction site by his son Simon de Colonia. Francisco de Colonia, Simon´s son, continued the work and created the Pellejería-Portal. This was a family business.

There are many slim and fit apes and monkeys here (see previous uploads). This one is different. The monkey is fat, clumsy, chained and vandalized.

Somebody has chipped off - a drum? Or an ithyphallus?

I browsed through Amandine Gaudron´s "Le singe médiéval". There are many musicians, dancers and acrobats, but I could not find an exhibitionist.