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Chapel of the Vigiles
In 1615, the cathedral chapter ceded to Juan Vigil de Quiñones († 1617), bishop of Valladolid and Segovia, from Gijón, the chapel located in the fourth section of the north side of the Cathedral so that he could build a funeral chapel for him and his family.
The plans were entrusted to Juan de Naveda (1590-1638) from Trasmerano and work began in 1627, stopping in 1630. They were resumed in 1633 and the chapel was finally finished in 1640 after several lawsuits between the town council and the family of the bishop. It is a building with a centralized plan, covered with a dome with a lantern. The model for this funerary chapel was the Pantheon in Rome and, in imitation of this building, its outer covering was made of stone slabs instead of tiles. This peculiarity generated a serious humidity problem due to the infiltration of rainwater that was corrected in 1999 during the beginning of the works of the Master Plan of the Cathedral; currently the chapel is covered with Arab tile.
Inside, the sober classicist decoration shows great plasticity in the grooves on the shafts of the pilasters and the fleshy acanthus leaves of the composite order capitals. The heraldic decoration tells us about the promoter's family, portrayed in the magnificent praying figure carved in stone that looks towards the altarpiece. This sculpture is among the best of the production of the Asturian Luis Fernández de la Vega (1601-1675), also the author of the altarpiece in the chapel, dedicated to the Annunciation. The altarpiece is made up of two large reliefs in which the scenes of the Annunciation and the Baptism of Christ were represented; on the bench there are four passages from the life of Jesus and from the attic the Eternal Father gives his blessing. This altarpiece never received polychromy and was stuccoed for the first time in 1879.
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