Granada Cathedral

Historia

Granada Cathedral, or the Cathedral of the Incarnation (Catedral de Granada, Santa Iglesia Catedral Metropolitana de la Encarnación de Granada) is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Granada, capital of the province of the same name in the Autonomous Region of Andalusia, Spain. The cathedral is the seat of the Archdiocese of Granada.HistoryUnlike most cathedrals in Spain, construction of this cathedral had to await the acquisition of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada from its Muslim rulers in 1492; while its very early plans had Gothic designs, such as are evident in the Royal Chapel of Granada by Enrique Egas, the construction of the church in the main occurred at a time when Spanish Renaissance designs were supplanting the Gothic regnant in Spanish architecture of prior centuries. Foundations for the church were laid by the architect Egas starting from 1518 to 1523 atop the site of the city's main mosque; by 1529, Egas was replaced by Diego de Siloé who labored for nearly four decades on the structure from ground to cornice, planning the triforium and five naves instead of the usual three. Most unusually, he created a circular capilla mayor rather than a semicircular apse, perhaps inspired by Italian ideas for circular 'perfect buildings' (e.g. in Alberti's works). Within its structure the cathedral combines other orders of architecture. It took 181 years for the cathedral to be built.

"La Catedral, siempre la gran Casa y representación de la ciudad, es especialmente impresionante en Granada, proyectada capital de Occidente, Viejo y Nuevo Mundo en la primera mitad del siglo dieciséis.Sus enormes columnas y precioso espacio blanco marcan el tiempo del Renacimiento europeo. La quieta fuerza que emana del centro del círculo del presbiterio, Cristo en la Eucaristía, Dios en el mundo material."