Sigüenza Cathedral

Historia

The Cathedral of Sigüenza is the seat of the bishop of Sigüenza, in Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1931.It is built in Romanesque and Gothic style.It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sigüenza-Guadalajara.The cathedral has its origin in 1121 when Bishop Don Bernardo de Agén was named bishop by Bernard de Sedirac, Archbishop of Toledo, with the objective of reducing the influence of the bishop of Osma, at the time of the reign of Doña Urraca, daughter of Alfonso VI. Don Bernardo conquered the city 1124. In 1138 Alfonso VII donated land, and in 1144 Don Bernardo founded the cathedral, possibly on the foundations of an existing Visigoth or Mozarabic church.The cathedral is a very large Gothic edifice of ashlar stone, though the lower levels show that it was built onto an earlier Romanesque cathedral. Its façade has three doors, with a railed court in front. At the sides rise two square towers, high, built at different times, with merlons topped with large balls; these towers are connected by a balustrade which crowns the facade, the work of Bishop Herrera in the eighteenth century. The interior is divided into a nave and two aisles, in Gothic style.