Sight Name: Cathedral of Our Lady
Sight Pic: index.php?module=Photoshare&type=show&func=viewimage&iid=218
Intro: Burgos Cathedral is one of the most magnificent cathedrals in Spain, classified as a World Heritage Site (the only Spanish cathedral with this status) because "The entire history of Gothic art is summed up in its superb architecture and its unique collection of works of art, including paintings, choir stalls, reredos,* tombs and stained-glass windows." It is unique in Spain because of its French Gothic influences, and to make things even more pan-European, the Bishop of Burgos who began building it, Mauricio, was English and was really called Maurice.
Body of the text: Burgos Cathedral was built on the order of Ferdinand III of Castile, work starting in 1221. The chevet** was finished only nine years later and the high altar was consecrated in 1260, after which work stopped for nearly 200 years. The cathedral was not finished until 1567.

The west front of the cathedral faces on to the Plaza Santa María. Its three-storey façade is reflected by the triple entrance in the ground storey. A clock above the door on the left has the "Papamoscas," a human figure which pops out when the hour strikes. A balustrade runs in front of the three windows in the second storey, the middle being a particularly graceful rose window. Above the statues in the top storey are the letters PULCHRA ES ET DECORA, ("beautiful and graceful art thou"), flanking a statue of the Virgin Mary. The towers on either side of the façade are notable for their high, needle-pointed pinnacles, not unreminiscent of those of the Sagrada Familia, though I would not dare suggest a connection. Of the other two entrances to the cathedral, the more interesting is the north end of the transept, though the tourist visit begins on the other, southern side.

Looking at a floor plan of Burgos Cathedral, it is quite difficult to make out its essentially cruciform shape, because of the cloisters and the fifteen chapels leading off the aisles and transepts. It is an enjoyable visit, worth taking your time over. The highlights are the late 13th-century cloisters, "one of the most beautiful ogival*** arch cloisters in Spain," in the words of the cathedral's website, and the late 15th-century Capilla de la Purificación, more often referred to as the Capilla de los Condestables, Chapel of the Constables, after the Castilian noble and his wife who commissioned it. You'll find it off the ambulatory, the semi-circular walkway behind the altar.

Other features of note are the dome over the transept, which looks Gothic but is actually Renaissance, the the Great Altar, the Chapter House and the art it contains, and the magnificent Golden Staircase (though I am less than sure what the purpose of this was).

Please note that most of the west end of the cathedral is reserved for worship and have suitable consideration.

*A reredos (sic) is a screen or decoration behind the altar in a church.
**A chevet is an elaborate apse, a "radiating chapel outside the choir aisle."
*** "Ogival" is a fancy word for "pointed."
(And that's quite enough ecclesiastical architecture terminology for today, say I.)
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