El templo de Santa María de Gracia de Cartagenaun proyecto inacabado

Laburpena

This temple is a prime example of a situation in which, due to financial problems caused by the confrontation of two different and contrasting ideas, a project for the construction of a building was never fully developed, despite being originally favoured by Cardinal Belluga himself, albeit with certain reservations. On the one hand there were those who nursed the hope of achieving ends that had nothing to do with the material construction of a temple. i. e. the use of the cathedral floor to thus enable them to recover the episcopal seat that had been lost towards the end of XIII century, whereas on the other hand there was the opposition of a chapter who wished to maintain the then present system of economic, financial and ecclesiastical control, justifying the need for a diocesan unity which had been interrupted centuries before whit the dismemberment of the Bishopric of Orihuela. The final result ofsuch projects, left in the charge of an unknown architect who took into the Kingdom, was a church of large proportions, but with obvious finance and sponsorship, and of the openly hostile confrontations that took place. All of these factors helped to hinder the carrying out of of coherent plans regarding desing, proportions and space, so creating the consequent lack of personality that today can be seen in the old temple of Santa Maria de Gracia.