Global InformationList of cathedrals in Spain information
This is a list of cathedrals in Spain, as established by the Spanish Episcopal Conference.[1] It includes all 87 currently active cathedrals and co-cathedrals. All of these temples are Roman Catholic, and cathedrals of other Christian denominations are listed separately below. Some former Roman Catholic cathedrals are also listed separately.
A cathedral church is a Christian place of worship that is the chief church of a diocese and is distinguished as such by being the location for the cathedra or bishop's seat.[2] As this list limits itself to temples that hold this title, some famous churches of the country are not included here, notably Barcelona's Basilica of the Sagrada Família and Santa María del Mar, the Basilica of Covadonga, the Poblet Abbey, the Hermitage of El Rocío, or El Escorial and Guadalupe Monasteries.
Christianity arrived in the Iberian peninsula in Roman times, and some of the earliest cathedrals were built during the Visigothic Kingdom. Very few remains survive to this day, mostly as foundations of current cathedrals, as is the case with the ones in Barcelona and Palencia.[3] Following the gradual Reconquista from the Islamic Al-Andalus, new cathedrals were erected on the site of mosques, in the Romanesque style: Santiago de Compostela, Zamora and the Old Cathedral of Salamanca are some of the best examples from this period. The mudéjar style emerged in Castile, a mixture of the Islamic and Christian architectonic traditions that also reached Aragón and whose most celebrated example would be the Teruel Cathedral. At the same time, Gothic architecture arrived from France through the Way of Saint James and influenced many of the massive cathedrals found in the north, like Burgos and León, and was quickly adopted for those further south, as new territories were retaken, like the Toledo and Seville cathedrals, the latter being the largest Gothic church in the world.[4] A local Gothic style survived longer than in other countries, with Segovia and the New Cathedral of Salamanca being built well into the 16th century. Renaissance ideas were seen as foreign and old, but were ultimately used for, among others, the Granada Cathedral, the site of the last Islamic stronghold. By the 17th century, wealth from the Americas financed ornate Baroque architecture such as a new façade for Santiago de Compostela or the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza. In post-Gothic styles, Spanish cathedrals departed from the usual Latin-cross shape and developed more open designs. A handful of Spanish cathedrals contain details of modern architecture: the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid was not finished until 1993 and is an eclectic mixture of different reinterpretations of historical styles.[5]
Today the Spanish cathedrals are major landmarks in their cities, and draw visitors from around the world each year, contributing significantly to the country's tourism. The Santiago de Compostela Cathedral has been an important religious pilgrimage site for centuries, and in 2017 received a record 2.6 million visitors.[6] 24 of these cathedrals have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites, either by themselves, like Burgos, or as part of a larger site, generally including the surrounding old town area, as is the case with San Cristóbal de La Laguna or Ibiza. Moreover, all but two of them are protected monuments of national cultural interest.[7][a]
- ^ "Diocesis". Spanish Episcopal Conference. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
- ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, ISBN 0-19-860575-7
- ^ "Palencia cathedral". Religiana. Retrieved 2021-05-29.
- ^ "Facts and figures" (PDF). catedraldesevilla.com. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
- ^ "La maldición de la catedral de la Almudena. ¿Por qué es tan fea?". elconfidencial.com. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
- ^ "New record of 2.6 million travelers in Santiago de Compostela in 2017". vivecamino.com. 2018-01-16. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
- ^ "Relación de Catedrales". culturaydeporte.gob.es. Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport. Retrieved 2021-05-29.
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