Catedral de Jerez
Built over a period of 80 years from 1695, the cathedral of San Salvador has a one-piece-at-a-time feel, incorporating several architects and styles: Gothic, Baroque, and Neoclassical. Its concatenation of flying buttresses, ornate façades, and sculpted pinnacles is formidable rather than beautiful, and it has attracted its fair share of criticism. The first great travel writer on Spain, Richard Ford, called it vile, adding that the “architect did not by accident stumble upon one sound rule.” The detached bell tower, which you can climb for an additional 1€, is also a hybrid—15th-century Gothic-Mudéjar on the bottom and 17th-century Baroque on top. Inside, the main points of interest are the intricately carved vaulting of the central nave, a lovely painting of the Virgin as a girl by Zurbarán, and a secret staircase which, owing to the many architects on the job, leads nowhere. Although intended at the outset as a church worthy of becoming a cathedral, that wish was not granted until 1980, and a statue of Pope John Paul II stands in gratitude outside.
Built over a period of 80 years from 1695, the cathedral of San Salvador has a one-piece-at-a-time feel, incorporating several architects and styles: Gothic, Baroque, and Neoclassical. Its concatenation of flying buttresses, ornate façades, and sculpted pinnacles is formidable rather than beautiful, and it has attracted its fair share of criticism. The first great travel writer on Spain, Richard Ford, called it vile, adding that the “architect did not by accident stumble upon one sound rule.” The detached bell tower, which you can climb for an additional 1€, is also a hybrid—15th-century Gothic-Mudéjar on the bottom and 17th-century Baroque on top. Inside, the main points of interest are the intricately carved vaulting of the central nave, a lovely painting of the Virgin as a girl by Zurbarán, and a secret staircase which, owing to the many architects on the job, leads nowhere. Although intended at the outset as a church worthy of becoming a cathedral, that wish was not granted until 1980, and a statue of Pope John Paul II stands in gratitude outside.
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