*Cathedral (Pl. D, E, 4, 5), an imposing memorial of the conquest of Spain, and the finest Renaissance church in the kingdom. It was begun in 1523 by Enrique de Egas in the Gothic style, continued in 1525 by Diego de Siloe (d. 1533) in the plateresque style (p. [51]), and consecrated, while still unfinished, in 1561. The N. tower only, which is now 187 ft. high, has been erected; the huge façade was begun in 1667 by Alonso Cano, who was also the chief author of the sculpture and painting in the church; the interior was not completed till 1703.
Two of the Side Portals, the Puerta de San Jerónimo, the first entrance to the N. in the Calle de Jiménez de Cisneros, and the Puerta del Colegio, on the E. side of the ambulatory, are adorned with sculptures by Siloe and others. The *Puerta del Perdón, the second portal to the N., also owes the beautiful ornamentation of its lower part to Siloe.
The *Interior (adm., see p. [74]) has double aisles with two rows of chapels, a lofty transept which does not project beyond the side-walls, a central choir, and a Capilla Mayor with ambulatory. The vaulting, 100 ft. in height, is borne by massive pillars and half-columns. Total length 380, breadth 220 ft. The decoration in white and gold harmonizes well with the fine marble pavement (1775).
The *Capilla Mayor, 148 ft. long and 154 ft. high, is crowned with a dome resting on Corinthian columns. On the pillars in front of the marble high-altar are kneeling statues of the ‘Catholic Kings’, by Pedro de Mena and Medrano (1677); above them are painted *Busts of Adam and Eve, in oak, by Alonso Cano, who painted also the representation of the Seven Joys of Mary.
Side Chapels. The Capilla de San Miguel, on the right, lavishly decorated in 1807, contains a picture by Al. Cano, the Mater Dolorosa (after Gasp. Becerra).—In the Capilla de la Trinidad, beyond the door of the Sagrario (p. [77]), is a painting of the Trinity by Al. Cano.—The Altar de Jesús Nazareno contains *Pictures by Dom. Theotocópuli (St. Francis) and Ribera; the fine Bearing of the Cross is by Al. Cano.—By the same artist are also the fine oaken busts of St. Paul and John the Baptist in the Capilla de Nuestra Señora del Carmen, adjoining the N. aisles.
From the first chapel in the ambulatory, to the right of the Puerta del Colegio, a portal by Siloe leads through an ante-room (antesacristía) into the Sacristy (18th cent.), containing a crucifix by Montañés (p. [61]) and an Annunciation and a Conception (a sculpture) by Al. Cano.
A handsome portal leads from the right transept into the late-Gothic *Capilla Real, the burial-chapel of the ‘Catholic Kings’, where Charles V. caused his parents Philip of Austria and Juana the Insane also to be interred. The marble *Monuments are in the Italian early-Renaissance style: on the right those of Ferdinand and Isabella, by the Florentine Domenico Fancelli; on the left, Philip and Juana, by Bartolomé Ordóñez. The high-altar, with the kneeling statuettes of the ‘Catholic Kings’, is by Philip Vigarní, a Burgundian; the reliefs in wood, historically interesting, represent (left) the surrender of the Alhambra keys and (right) the compulsory baptism of the Moors. Behind the reliquary altars, which are opened on four festival-days only, are hung Madonnas by Dierick Bouts, altar-wings by Roger van der Weyden, a Madonna and a Descent from the Cross by Memling, and other pictures. Over an altar in the right aisle is a *Winged Picture by D. Bouts.
The third great addition to the cathedral, the Sagrario, erected as a parish church in 1705–59, occupies the site of the ancient mosque, with its eleven aisles, which was used for Christian worship down to 1661.
The picturesque Placeta de la Lonja (Pl. E, 4), on the S. side of the cathedral, affords a good view of the Lonja (Exchange), built in 1518–22, which stands before the Sagrario, of the rich architecture of the Capilla Real, and of the—
Casa del Cabildo Antigua, once the seat of the Moorish university founded here after the downfall of Cordova and Seville, afterwards the residence of the ‘Catholic Kings’, and now a cloth magazine. Its fantastic exterior dates from the 18th cent.; in the interior are two interesting rooms of the Moorish period (fee 50 c.).