| Girona Cathedral | |
|---|---|
| Cathedral of Saint Mary | |
| Catedral de Santa Maria | |
 West façade and the grand Baroque staircase | |
 Girona Cathedral | |
| 41°59′15″N2°49′35″E / 41.98750°N 2.82639°E /41.98750; 2.82639 | |
| Location | Girona,Catalonia |
| Address | Plaça de la Catedral |
| Country | Spain |
| Denomination | Catholic |
| Website | catedraldegirona |
| History | |
| Status | Cathedral |
| Dedication | Mary, mother of Jesus |
| Dedicated | 21 September 1038[1] |
| Architecture | |
| Style | Romanesque,Gothic,Baroque |
| Groundbreaking | 1015 (1015)[2] |
| Completed | 18th century |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 85 m (278 ft 10 in) |
| Nave width | 23 m (75 ft 6 in)[3] |
| Height | 45 m (147 ft 8 in) |
| Administration | |
| Metropolis | Tarragona |
| Diocese | Girona |
| Clergy | |
| Bishop | Octavi Vilà Mayo |
| Type | Non-movable |
| Criteria | Monument |
| Designated | 3 June 1931 |
| Reference no. | RI-51-0000551 |
TheCathedral of Saint Mary (Catalan:Catedral de Santa Maria) is aRoman Catholiccathedral located inGirona, Catalonia, Spain. It is the seat of theRoman Catholic Diocese of Girona.
The cathedral's interior includes the widestGothicnave in the world, with a width of 23 metres (75 ft). Its construction was begun in the 11th century in theRomanesque architectural style, and continued in the 13th century in the Gothic style. Of the original Romanesque edifice only the 12th-centurycloister and abell tower remain.
A primitive Christian church existed here before theIslamic conquest of Iberia, after which it was converted into amosque, in 717. TheFranks reconquered the city in 785 underCharlemagne and the church was reconsecrated in 908.
In 1015, the church was in poor condition. Bishop Peter Roger, son of CountRoger I of Carcassonne, restored it with the money obtained by selling the church of theSt. Daniel to his brother-in-law, CountRamon Borrell of Barcelona. The church and its cloister were built until 1064, inRomanesque style. The bell tower was completed in 1117.
The complex was redesigned byPere Sacoma in 1312. After some years of indecisiveness,Guillem Bofill andAntoni Canet started the project in 1416. The new design consisted of a largeGothicnave, the widest Gothic nave in the world—22.98 m, and the second-widest of any church after that ofSt. Peter's Basilica (for comparison, the width of the nave ofReims Cathedral is 14.65 m, Saint-Étienne de Sens is 15.25 m, and 12 m in Notre Dame de Paris). The elevation in the vault is 35 metres (115 ft).
The church has aBaroque main façade (begun in 1606, with the upper part finished in 1961[4]), preceded by a large staircase completed in 1607. The sculptures decorating the three orders of the façade were executed by local sculptors in the 1960s. Other exterior features include the Gothic portal of St. Michael, on the northern façade, and the southern portico of the Apostles, from the 14th century. The latter originally featured sculptures of theTwelve Apostles, executed byAntoni Claperós in the 1460s, which have mostly been lost, aside from two depicting St. Peter and St. Paul, now in the church's chapter house.
The church has twobell towers. The oldest one, named afterCharlemagne, is the surviving one of the two originally flanking the first Romanesque church (the other ceased to exist in the 14th century). Begun in the early 11th century, it has a square plan with six levels separated byfriezes withLombard bands and doublemullioned windows.
The interior's single nave is surmounted bycross vaults, supported byGothicbuttresses. The side walls feature atriforium with pointed-arch stained glass windows. The apse is separated from the nave by a wall reaching to the vaulted ceiling and perforated with openings, namely one enormous ogive or pointed arch in the center framing the high altar, flanked by two smaller pointed arches as entrances to theambulatory at theapse. The upper reaches of the wall bear a large centralrose window (1705, dedicated to the Archangel St. Michael) flanked by two smaller ones. The polygonal apse is in turn flanked by two short galleries, with ogive orpointed arches as entrances, which correspond to the originalaisles of the Romanesque building and are located at the starting point of the ambulatory. The latter is divided by piers aligned with the rays of the apse's trapezoidal vaults, forming ten radial chapels.
The high altar, in white marble, dates to the 11th century. Other artworks include the Gothic sarcophagus ofBerenguer d'Anglesola (died 1418), byPere Oller, in the chapel ofIsabella of Portugal, the Chapel of All Saints (1376).
The Romanesque cloister is notable, featuring a series of columns with sculpted capitals: they depict fantastic figures and animals, and vegetable motifs. The frieze has instead scenes from the New Testament. Among the sculptors who worked at the cloister isArnau Cadell, also author of the cloister of theMonastery of Sant Cugat. Also in the cloister is the Chapel of Our Lady of Gràcia i de Bell-Ull, which was originally a gate to the cloister, renovated in the Gothic period; itstympanum has an image of the Virgin by Master Bartomeu (13th century). The cloister's galleries are home to numerous tombs of rich members of the monastery, dating to the 14th to 18th centuries, one also by Master Bartomeu (1273).
The museum's main attraction is theTapestry of Creation, an 11th- or early-12th-century piece considered amongst the master works ofRomanesquetapestry.
Other artworks include:
There are also other paintings and items, ranging fromMedieval toBaroque, and includingprocessional crosses,reliquaries,monstrances, etc.
HBO filmed outdoor scenes for season 6 of its fantasy television seriesGame of Thrones at the cathedral and its steps. The cathedral stands in for the Great Sept house of worship, with special effects altering parts of the building and the steps, in two episodes of season 6, "Blood of My Blood" and "The Winds of Winter".[5]
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