Read aloud by your device's voice. It sounds different on each device.
No cathedral
Madrid was the capital for centuries without a cathedral
When the capital moved from Toledo to Madrid in 1561, the seat of the Church stayed in Toledo, so Madrid had no cathedral. Plans for one were discussed as early as the 16th century, but the cost of expanding and keeping the Empire came first.
A new plan
It began as a parish church and became a cathedral in 1885
Francisco de Cubas designed the building, and the original plan was a parish church. The foundation stone was laid in 1883. When Pope Leo XIII granted a bull in 1885 creating the Madrid-Alcalá bishopric, the plans were changed to those of a Gothic Revival cathedral.
Abandoned
After the Civil War the site lay abandoned until 1950
Construction was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, and the site lay abandoned until 1950. Then Fernando Chueca Goitia adapted the plans of de Cubas to a baroque exterior, to match the grey and white facade of the Royal Palace directly opposite.
Finished
Pope John Paul II consecrated it in 1993, over a century after the first stone
Construction began in 1883 and finished over a century later, when Pope John Paul II consecrated the cathedral in 1993. On 22 May 2004 the marriage of Felipe VI, then crown prince, to Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano took place here.
Inside
The Neo-Gothic interior holds chapels in styles from revivals to pop art
The Neo-Gothic interior has chapels and statues by contemporary artists in heterogeneous styles, from historical revivals to pop-art decor. The Neo-Romanesque crypt houses a 16th-century image of the Virgen de la Almudena.
Day 1, morning
It comes after Royal Palace of Madrid. Then Mercado de San Miguel.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Almudena Cathedral, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.