Colegiata de Santa Maria la Mayor, Calatayud

Historia

The Colegiata de Santa Maria la Mayor, in translation, the Collegiate church of St Mary Major is a Mudéjar-Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church located in Calatayud, in Aragon, Spain.HistoryThe church was commissioned in the 12th century after the Reconquista of Calatayud by King Alfonso I el Batallador. This church was sited where the main mosque of the town was located. The church assumed a historical position in that it hosted some of the meetings of the Cortes de Calatayud during the reign of King Pedro IV of Aragon, and where the town swore allegiance to Emperor Charles I and later to King Philip III of Spain. The church was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1884.Art and architectureOf the original Mudéjar construction, the church retains the cloister, tower and apse. In the 16th century the portal was sculpted in alabaster by Juan de Talavera and Esteban de Obray.In 1884, the church was declared Monumento Nacional, and the main portal was surrounded by a gate.In 2001, the UNESCO recognized it as a Patrimony of Humanity, within the Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon World Heritage Site.