Palma Cathedral
Catedral de Santa María de Palma de Mallorca
"La Seu" Cathedral of Palma
Religion
AffiliationRoman Catholic
Location
LocationPalma, Spain
Architecture
TypeChurch
StyleGothic
Groundbreaking1229
Completed1601
Specifications
Direction of façadeNorth-West
Length121m
Width40m

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.

Description

Built by the Crown of Aragón on the site of a Moorish-era mosque, the cathedral is 121 metres long, 40 metres wide and its nave is 44 metres tall. By way of comparison, the height of the central nave reaches 33m in Notre Dame de Paris, 38m in Reims, 42m in Notre-Dame d'Amiens and 48m in Saint-Pierre de Beauvais, the highest of all Gothic cathedrals.

Designed in the Catalan Gothic style but with Northern European influences, it was begun by King James I of Aragon in 1229 but only finished in 1601. It sits within the old city of Palma atop the former citadel of the Roman city, between the Royal Palace of La Almudaina and the episcopal palace. It also overlooks the Parc de la Mar and the Mediterranean Sea.

In 1901, fifty years after a restoration of the cathedral had started, Antoni Gaudí was invited to take over the project. While some of his ideas were adopted – moving the choir stalls from the middle nave to be closer to the altar, as well as a large canopy – Gaudí abandoned his work in 1914 after an argument with the contractor. The planned changes were essentially cosmetic rather than structural, and the project was cancelled soon after.

See also

References

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