Palma Cathedral

Palma Cathedral Catedral de Santa María de Palma de Mallorca
"La Seu" Cathedral of Palma
Religion
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
Location
Location	Palma, Spain
Architecture
Type	Church
Style	Gothic
Groundbreaking	1229
Completed	1601
Specifications
Direction of façade	North-West
Length	121m
Width	40m

The Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma (Cathedral of St. Mary of Palma), more commonly referred to as La Seu (a title also used by many other churches), is a Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral located in Palma, Mallorca, Spain. It is the Cathedral of the diocese of Mallorca, and is situated on the seashore of Palma, abutting the city walls and situated between the Royal Palace of La Almudaina and the Episcopal Palace of Mallorca. Its rose window, with a diameter of nearly 14 meters, is the largest extant Gothic rose window, while its 44-meter high nave is the eighth-highest in the world.

The site of the cathedral was occupied by a mosque under Muslim rule. Construction on the cathedral began shortly after the reconquest of the island in 1229, and continued into the 17th century. Today, the cathedral is Palma's most popular tourist attraction.

History

The city of Palma, then called Madina Mayurqa, was conquered from its Almohad Muslim rulers in 1229, during the first stage of the conquest of Majorca. King James I immediately reestablished the Diocese of Mallorca, and works began on the site of Madina Mayurqa's largest mosque. The first still-extant parts of the cathedral to be built is the Trinitat and Royal Chapels, which were completed in 1327. The last traces of this mosque disappeared as the cathedral began to take its current form in 1386. The cathedral has three parallel naves with corresponding apses, which most scholars attribute to influence of the roughly contemporary Cathedral of Barcelona and Santa Maria del Mar. The nave height of 40 meters is the 8th-highest in the world, while the width of the pillars supporting the vaults are the narrowest in the world relative to the vault size: they are 1/12th the width of the vault, to Reims Cathedra's 1/6th column width. The cathedral is 121 meters long and 40 meters wide. Originally, the cathedral had one main bell tower rising above the nave, however, as the height and width of the naves increased, it was incorporated in the main façade. Construction finished in 1601, and the cathedral was consecrated in the same year. The highly vertical west front of the cathedral was completed in 1640, however, structural removals of portions of the façade in the 18th century significantly altered the original appearance of the cathedral. The narrow pillars and high vaults of the cathedral failed several times in the 17th and 18th centuries, but have been structurally sound since.

Antonio Gaudi was invited to begin overseeing restoration works in 1903, and presided over wide-ranging changes in the interior of the cathedral. The works were designed to bring liturgy in the cathedral closer to the people, but have been criticized for the destruction and alteration of Mudejar and Baroque decoration. The choir stalls, originally situated in the center of the nave, were moved to the side walls of the royal chapel, and Gaudi designed a large canopy to hang above the altar. Collaborators of Gaudi also designed a comprehensive modernist program to renovate the south nave, which were started but soon halted due to local opposition. One apse was completed in a modern ceramic style decorated with wrought iron, which is still visible.

See also

• Catholic Church in Spain
• List of highest church naves

External links

• "Cathedral of Palma: La Seu", Video in English, 3:33 min., Mallorca TV Teleweb+ Archived 2014-10-21 at the Wayback Machine
• Virtual 3D-tour inside a Palma Cathedral Archived 2016-03-30 at the Wayback Machine
• Photos & history of Cathedral of Palma (in Polish)

• History of Palma Cathedral