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As is the case of most Christian buildings in
Granada, the Cathedral was built on the site of the
former Mosque.
The site of the former Mosque has since been replaced
by four buildings: the Cathedral, the Royal Chapel, the
Sagrario, and the Merchants' Exchange.
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For me, the most striking fact about the cathedral is
the incredibly long time it took to build. Work on the
cathedral began on 15th March 1523 and it was not
completed until 1704, 180 years later.
Building stopped during the plague, and several
architects were involved including Juan Gil de Hontañón,
Enrique Egas, Diego de Siloe, etc.
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Granada Cathedral, designed at the
peak of the Spanish Renaissance. In 1529 Diego de Siloé
outlined the Renaissance lines of this building upon its
Gothic foundations, with a 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' (eg in Alberti's works). Within its structure
the cathedral combines other orders of architecture. It
took 181 years for the cathedral to be built.
In 1667 Alonso Cano altered the initial plan for the
main façade, introducing Baroque elements.
The magnificence of the building
would be even greater, if the two large 81 meter towers
foreseen in the plans had been built; however the
project remained incomplete for various reasons, among
them, financial. |
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