Catedral de Burgos

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About Catedral de Burgos

The Catedral de Santa Maria de Burgos began to be built in 1221, in the Gothic style of the great French cathedrals, and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1984. In the 15th and 16th centuries it acquired the elements that give it its familiar profile: the lace-like spires of the façade towers, the work of Juan de Colonia, the cimborio over the crossing and the capela do Condestável.

Inside, the cathedral is a succession of chapels, altarpieces, grills and tombs. Beneath the cimborio, a star-shaped structure that lets light into the crossing, lies the slab of the tomb of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid, the Castilian hero of the Reconquista, and his wife, Dona Jimena. In one arm of the transept, the Escada Dourada, by Diego de Siloé, from the 16th century, rises in flights of gilded grille up to a street door.

The capela do Condestável, at the end of the chevet, is an almost independent space of late Gothic, with an open-work star vault and the marble tombs of the Constable of Castile and his wife. High in the nave, the Papamoscas, a figure linked to the clock, opens its mouth when the hours strike.

The cloister houses the cathedral museum, with paintings, tapestries and the chest that, according to tradition, El Cid left as collateral for a loan.