In my previous life times (I have had dreams of my previous reincarnations, see also My Falcons as a reference), when I served in the Knights Templar as a military architect, I had to come through these places to expand or maintain castles and fortresses along the pilgrims routes. So this Templar Cathedral looked familiar to me, like if I have been there before.
This was a Knight’s Templar’s Head Quarters with a head master in charge and a garrison of around 92 Knights Templar and Sergeants in Arms covering the security an financial services of the north pilgrims route toward Santiago de Compostela. The Brother of King Alfonso X “The Wise” Prince Felipe, a Templar Knight himself serving this temple/cathedral HQ, is buried here next to one of his wives.
Santa Maria La Blanca Templar’s Cathedral was built in the transition from Romanesque to Gothic style from the second half of the 12th century to the last third of the 13th century. The medieval name of the town was “Villasirga”, it is called in the Cantigas by Alfonso X “The Wise”. Since the 16th century, its inhabitants have called it “Villalcazar de Sirga”. “Alcazar” means fortress and their church looks like a castle. Both names make reference to “Sirga”, the path towards Santiago or the previous Visogothic route.
The Knights Templar, who protected the pilgrims bound for the Holy Land, built, with the help of the Cistercians, a temple-fortress in praise of Saint Mary. Its floor plan is achiepiscopal cross-shaped, with three naves crossed by a double transept with five sections. The tower (partly preserved) is placed against the North side and Santiago Chapel to the South. The head is made up of five apses, of which the three in the middle are straight.
Templar symbols are found in the busts build in the walls of the side chapels in the head and nest to the Christ Pantocrator on the south doorway.
From the outside, the church looks like a fortress, which contrasts its splendid inside with ribbed vaults finished off by polychrome rosettes. Behind the Gothic capitals, the vaults are supported by means of semidetached columns, supported by pillars octagonal cruciform plinths.
The main nave has Romanesque windows with double and triple columns, the ones on the sides have bays with simple flared openings. A Cistercian oculus and the big Gothic rose window stand out in the Santiago Chapel (restored in the 14th century, when The Knights of Santiago took over after the dissolution of the Templar)
