On January 25, 1566 Don Fernando de Solier, canon Archpriest of the Cathedral, died in Segovia, who the previous year had wanted for himself and his successors the patronage of the Main Chapel of the church of San Martín. In it he would have his burial, the same as his successors in the Mayorazgo that he established. Although he is commonly blamed, it was not he who promoted the demolition of the main apse of the temple, since it was carried out in the Fourteenth of 1668, and was agreed upon by the priest and parishioners the previous year.
By deed of May 8, 1667, the Master Builders Juan Carretero and Lorenzo de Rioseco undertook to carry out said work. In effect, the semicircular part of the apse was demolished, from the foundations, and the new work was linked to the old. The cost was 7,000 reales of fleece, the faithful taking charge of putting the materials on site.

Had the tastes of the time made that Romanesque apse and that existing Gothic altarpiece appear poor, and that must have been extraordinary?

Simultaneously with this work, the main altarpiece was made, begun on May 12, 1667. Its cost was 22,000 reales of fleece and it was made by the Segovian carvers José Vallejo Vivero and Juan de Pardo, according to the design of the first of them. Such a design was chosen among the several presented.

The altarpiece had to be prepared for the Fourteenth of the following year, a festival that had to be delayed a week because it had not been completed, being celebrated on the second Sunday of September instead of the first, as is traditional.

The gilding and painting of the altarpiece was done by the Segovian gilder Francisco Ximénez de Ocaña, according to a contract dated January 28, 1668. These details of the altarpiece were carefully studied in a documented monograph by don Juan de Vera. The altarpiece is classical. It has excellent gilding and rich polychrome on the moldings and grotesques; It consists of two bodies: The bank has two medallions with canvases of the evangelists, and in the center a display stand that was previously finished off with a dome. This Temple was mutilated and has disappeared in the latest liturgical reforms.

 

The first body has four Solomonic columns and in the center a canvas of Saint Martin on horseback. This was given by the parishioner Don Francisco Bonifaz. On the sides it has two canvases of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and above them the medallions of the other two evangelists, who contemplate what is outlined on the altarpiece bench. The second body adopts the semicircular shape of the vault. In its center is an oval canvas of the Annunciation of the Virgin, a gift from the parish priest Don Juan de Pamplona y Ochoa. On the sides there are grotesques of good size and well polychromed.
The aforementioned paintings are by Amaya, a painter from the Madrid school, a companion of Francisco Collantes and Francisco Rizzi, and, like them, a disciple of Vicente Carducci. He died in Madrid in 1690 or two years later.
The fact that many works by the same artist, which were in Madrid churches before the 1936 war, have been lost, increases the value of these canvases.
The entire Main Chapel today has its walls covered with baroque wallpaper, very deteriorated. At the top it has prominent baroque cornices with moldings and golden fillets.

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-RIGHT WALL OF THE CHAPEL.

Above the door, which led to the entrance to the sacristy, there is a canvas from the mid-18th century. It represents King David and his soldiers receiving the Showbread from the priest Abimelech, which was placed in the Sanctuary and which only the priests of the temple could eat.
This is followed by a large canvas, also Baroque: It represents
Saint Martin, when in the 4th century he went to Trier to ask the Emperor for clemency in favor of Prisciliano and his followers, sentenced to death for heretics. The Emperor appears on his throne, under a rich canopy, in an attitude of denying the request of the Saint who appears below
immutable and serene.

-LEFT WALL OF THE CHAPEL.

Next to the altarpiece there is a lavishly composed Baroque canvas. It represents the taking of Jericho by Joshua: In the foreground are the soldiers and the priests, carrying the Ark of the Covenant and the trumpets; in the background are the collapsed walls.
The next painting, as large as the border, represents an apparition of the Virgin to Saint Martin. It is also from the 18th century and has a spectacular composition.

-MAIN CRAFT.

It's not really a ship, as stated at the beginning. Only that name is used here to identify things. The same is done in the side naves.
At the main entrance there are two granite stone holy water fonts. One of them is placed on an octagonal Gothic column, and the other on a Plateresque column, with its capital. The main door has beautiful 17th-century ironwork and bolts. The gate has baroque carving.

In the center of the Mozarabic vault there is a polychrome wooden shield with the Villafañe, Leiva, Mendoza and Pedrarias Dávila barracks.

-THE ORGAN.

The current organ is in the Baroque style and has the classic horizontal trumpets of Spanish organs. It was built in 1711 by the organ builder from Segovia, Manuel Molero, who paid it in various installments: First, 1,110 reales in 1712, 380 reales in 1713, 300 reales in 1714, and the rest upon completion.
The organ case is made of marbled and gilded wood, with good baroque carving. Everything was repainted in 1856 by Pascual Peinador in the amount of 310 reales, and everything was fixed by the organ builder Francisco Pascual in the amount of 670 fleece reales.
It has 21 registers and two pedals. Records include clarion, flute A 13, cornet, flute, octave, dozen, fortnight, nineteenth, cymbal, royal trumpet, bass guitar, flute A, and octave 2. Today it needs a good repair.
Primitively it had another location, and it was in the year 1677 when it was agreed to put it in the current gallery.
RIGHT ABSIDE.
A tombstone, at the top, on the right side says: "This chapel of Santa Catalina belongs to Rodrigo del Río", the greatest guardian of our Lord King and his Kingdoms. "He ended the last day of the month of January of the year of our Lord 1464. He left perpetual income for a Mass and
Response that will be said in it every day".
The chapel is closed with a beautiful wrought iron gate, from the early years of the 15th century, with two sections. It is crowned by two tanantos that support a quartered shield with the arms of the
Lineages of the River, Hoz, Tapia and Heredia.

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-RIGHT SIDE NAVE.

First stretch. - It has an arcosolium, open in the wall, from the 12th century. It corresponds to the foundation that Juan Aguilar del Río and his wife Leonor de San Millán made on March 15, 1530.
Until a few years ago, the altar of the Virgen del Rosario was in the arcosolio. The arch has an Elizabethan Gothic-style molding, made of limestone, and at the top are the coats of arms of the founders, who also appear in the next section. Today a canvas of La Dolorosa hangs from the wall, from the 18th century. Today the baroque urn with the Recumbent Christ by Gregorio Fernández is placed on the floor; Piece of exceptional importance, which was donated to the temple by Don Juan Manuel Bravo de Mendoza to be placed in the chapel of N. Sra. del Racimo, where it was until a few years ago.
Within Spanish sculpture, Gregorio Fernández occupies an outstanding place, and the Reclining Christ series is something exceptional. The one in El Pardo, or the one in Zamora, or one of the ones in Valladolid, or the one in the Cathedral of Segovia could be more beautiful... But this one in San Martín is just as beautiful as the others. In 1951 Don Juan de Vera demonstrated in a documented monograph that it was really a sculpture by Gregorio Fernández, something that was not known for sure.