When considered apart from its function as an architectural waterspout, the gargoyle becomes pure image. Its contemplation can evoke a wide range of emotions. It embodies expression, beauty, or ugliness. Above all, however, it is art.
The gargoyle also constitutes a remarkable expression of the artist’s creative freedom and boundless imagination. The extraordinary amalgam of forms and beings reveals the sculptor’s freedom to carve multiple combinations and fantasies into stone.
Demonic representations in gargoyles, replete with fascinating and unsettling details and endowed with formidable imaginative power, provide an especially eloquent manifestation of this creative freedom. At times, they even convey a sense of artistic boldness and provocation. They constitute a clear expression of the sculptors’ creative autonomy, visible in the extraordinary inventions found above all on the great cathedrals.
In this article, we enter the magnificent Burgos Cathedral to examine the imposing demons of its lantern tower. We begin with an evocative description of the splendid cathedral: “Preceded by a spiritual past intimately bound up with the glories of Castile, the period from 1221 to 1568 gave form to an incomparable dream in stone, from which there initially emerged a cathedral ennobled, in its robust simplicity, by the purest elements of Classical Gothic” (López Mata, 2008, p. 185).
The Devil in the Gargoyles of Burgos Cathedral
Although gargoyles display a considerable variety of iconographic types, demonic imagery occupies a prominent place among the gargoyles of many cathedrals. This marked presence of the Devil may be related to the symbolic opposition between evil and sin, situated on the exterior of the church, and goodness and the sacred, associated with its interior. The possible function of making evil visibly present before the medieval community should also be taken into account.
The gargoyles of the lantern tower of Burgos Cathedral constitute an exceptional group of representations of the Devil. They display features characteristic of the demonic typology, together with other distinctive traits specific to the demons of this cathedral.
Sculptural and Iconographic Features of the Demons of the Lantern Tower
In general, these are large, elongated, and slender gargoyles, superbly carved both in their overall forms and in the precision of their details. Their volume and sculptural plasticity are striking: the figures seem almost to come alive, conveying a range of tactile and visual sensations, including flaccidity, tension, and repulsion.
Among their most distinctive features are leaf-shaped wings, most of them formed as large leaves that we refer to as “acanthus wings”; foliate motifs also appear on the genital area. The bodies display protuberances and hanging folds of flesh. The arms are short and very straight, sometimes appearing to emerge directly from the body, while other figures lack them altogether.
Female breasts also occur. We have already examined the association between the Devil and women in the medieval imagination, as well as representations of the Devil with pendulous breasts, an image found on numerous gargoyles and also in the choir stalls of this cathedral. The necks are strongly articulated, with deep grooves and prominent windpipes that intensify the impression of tension.
Some figures have forelegs or hind legs bent backwards as though dislocated, a configuration also found in other demonic representations, including a fourteenth-century manuscript of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Their extremities may terminate in insect-like pincers or claws, a feature likewise found in a drawing of an eleventh-century capital from the Basilica of Vézelay (France). Other figures have the hind legs of a he-goat, with cloven hooves, or limbs terminating in coiled serpents, a feature also visible in some of the grotesques inside the cathedral.
Some of the bellies are distended and deliberately unpleasant in appearance. The surfaces of the bodies may be rough and, at times, reptilian or dragon-like. Several figures wear collars decorated with spherical ornaments. Their heads display prominent, strongly projecting foreheads or brows, crests, horns curving backwards, and pointed, elongated, or curved ears. The mouths sometimes contain two long fangs; some have hanging folds at the sides, while others display long whiskers.
Many of these demons are anthropomorphic, and some of the gargoyles possess a particularly striking feature: the eyes, nose, and mouth are transformed into sinister cavities that give the face a cadaverous, spectral appearance, lending the figures a pronounced Expressionist character. Some expressions are mournful and convey suffering. These are faces whose contemplation is profoundly unsettling.
Expressiveness, Beauty, and Fantasy
The gargoyles of the lantern tower are terrifying figures and, at the same time, sculptures of extraordinary beauty. The expressiveness of their gestures has the power to unsettle the viewer. These are unique and imposing sculptures: superb, disturbing, original, spectral, and disquieting. Above all, however, they are works of art of remarkable beauty, fantasy, and imaginative power.
As an example of artistic excellence, both stylistically and iconographically, Burgos Cathedral preserves a group of gargoyles of outstanding value that forms part of Spain’s artistic heritage, a heritage of which we may justly be proud.
The Demons of the Lantern Tower of Burgos Cathedral
Bibliography
LÓPEZ MATA, T., La Catedral de Burgos, Burgos, Instituto Municipal de Cultura y Turismo, 2008.
This entry was originally published in July 2020 and updated in October 2026.
Doctor of Art History and researcher specializing in the study of gargoyles.
I am Dolores Herrero Ferrio, and my thesis, “An Approach to the Study of Gargoyles of Gothic Cathedrals in Castilla and León”, is dedicated to the study of these fascinating figures.
If you like gargoyles and art history, you will also enjoy my book, “The Gargoyle and Its Iconography,” a book I have written with great care for those interested in the world of gargoyles.
I have created my own Encyclopedia of Gargoyles, a Gargopedia to share with you, where you will discover all the secrets and wonders of these enigmatic sculptures.
I hope you enjoy this Gargopedia as much as I have enjoyed creating it, and remember that each gargoyle has a story to tell, and here you will discover them all.
