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Know the temple
We invite you to visit the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, and enjoy the harmony and beauty of this temple, which contains works of great artistic and spiritual value.
It has an area of 1,915 square meters, a nave height of 25 meters, a tower of 75 meters, a central nave 64 meters long by 36 meters maximum width at its transept, and a capacity of 4,000 people. It is a church with a Latin cross plan, three longitudinal naves, a transverse nave or transept and a pentagonal head. It lacks an ambulatory.
The carving of the Good Shepherd, which was on the primitive neo-Gothic main altar, is the work of the Barcelona artist José Llimona, also the author of the carvings of the Four Evangelists. They are placed on the pillars of the transept, although they come from the old altar. Under the rose windows of the transept, two gilded neo-Gothic style altarpieces stand out, that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and that of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Likewise, the altarpieces of the Holy Family, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Saint Anthony and Saint Francis of Assisi, works by Julio Gargallo, stand out.
On July 30, 1953, the temple acquired cathedral status with the consecration of the new main altar, after the segregation of the Diocese of Gipuzkoa from that of Vitoria.
Some data
- ARCHITECT: Manuel Echave
- TOWER: Ramón Cortázar
- STYLE: Neo-Gothic
- CONSTRUCTION DATE: 1889-1897
- BUDGET: 750,000 pesetas
- STAINED WINDOWS: Juan Bautista Lázaro
- ORGAN: Organería Española (Azpeitia). 1954
Manuel Echave Zalacain
San Sebastián. 03/20/1846 - 10/12/1908
In 1872 he graduated from the Madrid School of Architecture. In 1880 he was appointed assistant architect of the management of works dependent on the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, becoming the head in 1882. In 1887 he won the competition to build the Good Shepherd parish in the Amara expansion. In 1890 he travelled to Germany to see the constructions planned for housing the working class. Upon his return, he built a building for workers in Antiguo neighbourhood and a home, described as “economic housing,” in Alfonso XIII square. He also made contact with the cathedrals of southwestern Germany. In 1891 he again shared the studio on Garibay Street with the young architects Ramón Cortázar Urruzola and Luis Elizalde Urruzola until approximately 1905. In 1894, commissioned by the Provincial Council, he provided La Concha beach with a tourist service for the Royal Family, the Royal Bath House, a construction that stood out for its Arab influence. His work is eclectic with a historical basis according to the typology of the buildings and did not have a great relationship with the modernist trend.
Organ
The primitive organ was an Aquilino Amezua and the two first organists that the parish had, Don José Luis Zapirain (1863-1949), from Lekeitio, occasionally helped by his brother Buenaventura, and Don Juan María Ugarte, exercised their priestly and musical ministry there. The last one (1878-1956), from Errezil, composer and excellent improviser.
The new organ was inaugurated on January 19, 1954. According to data published on the day of its inauguration, it is the largest organ in the state and one of the largest in Europe. It is a structure of tin, wood, copper and zinc that rises with its 30 tons of weight above the choir of the cathedral. Its main console consists of five keyboards for hands and one for feet, in addition to another additional one, an echo organ and one hundred and thirty effective games. It houses more than ten thousand tubes inside and outside, the largest of which measures more than twelve meters and the smallest, one centimetre. The cost was more than a million and a half pesetas, an amount bequeathed by Fermín Lasala, Duke of Mandas, from San Sebastián. It was built by Organería Española, in Azpeitia, and its fans, with several horses, by the well-known Meindinger house, from Basel.
Photo gallery
“I am the good shepherd. As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me. And I am willing to die for them.”
John 10, 14-15
HELP US
The temple is God’s house and ours. Let’s collaborate to keep it worthy. If you wish to collaborate in the conservation of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd of San Sebastian or in its activities, make a donation.
Self-financing is the challenge that we Catholics take on, because the maintenance of our community is in our hands. This is done through subscription, which is convenient, stable and deducts taxes in the Income Tax Return.