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Construction
Construction of Cathedral of Santa María de Vitoria
cultural property in Vitoria, Spain
- 13th century – 13th century
- Europe
Construction
cultural property in Vitoria, Spain
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
The Cathedral of Santa María de Vitoria (Basque: Santa Maria katedrala, Spanish: Catedral de Santa María) is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic cathedral located in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque country, Spain. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1931 and a World Heritage Site (as part of the Camino de Santiago) in 2015.
Construction of the cathedral of Santa María in Gothic-style began in the late 13th century and continued throughout the 14th century. It was conceived as a fortress church, with great volume and enclosed appearance, being part of the city's defences.
Between 1496 and 1861, the building operated as a collegiate church, and it was that year when it was declared a cathedral. It has a Latin-cross plan, with a wide transept crossing and circular apse containing several chapels.
The facade's portals are richly decorated with sculpture. The western portico is masterwork consisting of three portals: the central one consecrated to the Virgin, the left one dedicated to San Gil and the right one to the Final Judgement and Saint James.
The cathedral closed down to the public in 1994 after a partial collapse of a vault and major structural damages were found. It is being restored since then within the project of the Santa Maria Cathedral Foundation, which manages guided tours and is in charge of restoration works.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Cathedral of Santa María de Vitoria”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.