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The construction of the current Basilica is strongly related to the increase of the devotion to the Virgen del Pilar along the XVII Century. The column or pillar where the Virgin appeared to the apostle St James is kept inside. Firstly, a small chapel was built to keep and venerate this column. Later, a Romanesque church was built. After that, a Mudejar Church was built, but this one suffered a fire in 1434 so it was replaced by a Mudejar Gothic temple dedicated to St Mary Major.
Finally, by initiative of Don Juan de Austria, the temple was designed by Felipe Sánchez and Francisco Herrera Hidestrosa in 1681. Later, the King Fernando VI ordered, in 1754, the construction of the Santa Capilla to Ventura Rodríguez, who renovated the interior decoration according to the new Neoclassic currents of the time. He also designed the Santa Capilla and the Coreto and redesigned the exterior design adding domes to the central one – that has been thought to be the only one- and towers that will be finished in the middle of our Century, enlarging their dimensions to 130 m high by 67 m width. The Basilica has 11 domes, 10 lanterns and 4 towers.
The Temple has three naves that are covered by a barrel vault, and they lean on pillars. The central nave is divided by the Major Altar that, at the same time, is dominated by the Major Altarpiece from the XVI Century that was made by Damián Froment, in a Gothic style, and where episodes of the Virgin and our Lord are represented.
Inside, the Basílica is of great beauty and sober grandness. The Santa Capilla, understood as a great shrine in Classicist Baroque style, is a large and quiet Holy place, that was carried out using marbles, bronzes and silvers that are mixed with the sculptural decoration and the painting of its dome. The Virgin, which is 39 cm high, is made of wood and rests on a jasper column.
The choir, a Renaissance work, consists of 130 seats of honour with three levels of stands. Its authors were Esteban de Obray, Juan de Moreto and Nicolás Lobato.
Most of the domes and vaults are decorated with frescoes by famous painters such Ramón and Francisco Bayeu. The chapel Reina de los Mártires (Queen of Martyrs) was decorated by Francisco de Goya, who also painted the vault of the Coreto of the Virgin.
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It was built as a leisure residence of the Taifas Kings, under the rule of the king al-Muqtadir. It conserves part of its primitive fortified precincts.
Later, it was reformed by the Christian Kings and most of it reformation was carried out by Fernando el Católico becoming a Christian alcazar of royal ownership. The palace has a great rectangular courtyard, with reservoirs on both ends next to two side porticoes with Late Gothic and polilobed arcades.
The exterior towers are rounded except for the Troubadour Tower that should be highlighted because of its height and rectangular floor, of great dimensions and organized in several floors. In the Northern portico, there is a small oratory of octagonal floor, with the mihrab in one of its sides decorated with atauriques (Islamic decoration based on vegetal motives).
From Christian times, it conserves a staircase of honour, several rooms decorated with sober coffered ceilings, and especially the Throne Room, that could be placed among the best works of this kind.
Nowadays, this palace is the headquarters of the Regional Parliament of the Autonomous Community of Aragon.
It was founded in 1564 by Don Hernando de Aragón, Fernando III de Aragon el Católico´ s brother. It has a Latin cross plan with only one nave that is divided into three bays, with a small enlargement like most of the transept of the Aragon churches, and a total length of 43.60 meters.
The plaster façade shows the scene of the Holy Assumption, designed in Baroque style, in a very typical style in Aragon from the end of the XVII Century. This work has been attributed to Ramírez de Arellano.
It is covered by a star- shape rib vault which is richly decorated with golden wood keystones that show the coat of arms of the founder.
The altarpiece of the church was built between 1755 and 1765 and is divided into three bodies, The chapel of the Agnus Dei, located behind the chancel, covered by a barrel vault, has a decoration based on paintings that are allegoric to the celestial and Eucharistic vision.
This church would be decorated by Goya in 1774, creating a season of 11 oils on linen from which only seven of them have survived, because the church was abandoned during the Spanish War of Independence and the subsequent Ecclesiastical Confiscation.
It is the first Christian Cathedral of Zaragoza. It is dedicated to St Salvador. It was built on the ruins of the roman forum temple, the Visigothic church and the Muslim Major Mosque.
The bishop Pedro Torroja starts the Cathedral in a Romanesque style, with three naves, transept and three semicircular apses. Between the XIV and the XV Century starts the construction of the current Gothic Cathedral, so a new central nave and two side naves are added. Its Baroque tower was built by Contini in 1686. The base dome, from the end of the XV Century, is a Juan Botero´ s work of art and is a star of eight points. In the middle of the XVI Century, the pillars and the vaults are reformed.
Inside, the Major Altar has a fabulous altarpiece by Meter Johan, with several sepulchres of Martyrs, archbishops and princes. The choir is closed by railings, with an artistic set of chairs in carved oak by Navarro. We should highlight the Plateresque Chapel of Zaporta and the Baroque Chapel of St Agustín as well as St. Valero´s among the chapels.
The Chapel of St. Bernardo has a great alabaster altarpiece. In the Chapter House there are great paintings of Ribera, Zurbarán and Goya. There is an excellent museum in the Sacristy, with masterpieces and especially with a Gothic and Renaissance Flemish tapestry collection.
It is one of the most emblematic places of the town. It comes from the XIII Century, when it was planned to build a building that could connect the cathedral with the new dean´ s house, who was the president of the chapter with a rank lower than the prelate.
The current arch, very restored, has the form carried out in the XIV Century, and the windowed balcony is its most eye- catching element, with windows with Gothic Mudejar tracery.
Nowadays, it is ownership of a financial organization and after its restoration it has become a museum and a residence for distinguished visitors.
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