Ávila Cathedral

It is one of the first Gothic cathedrals built in Castile. It seems to be inspired in the French abbey of Sain-Denis.

It was started in Romanesque style, but later, in times of Alfonso VIII, it was pulled down in order to build a better cathedral and was built in Gothic style with granite.

The temple has a Latin cross plan, three naves with four bays, a large transept and presbytery formed by a major chapel, a double nave ambulatory and angle chapels. The only element that could be considered as Romanesque, although Late Romanesque, is the presbytery located in the wall and part of the walls oriented to the transept. The development of the naves, its vaults and the two towers (one of them unfinished) are in first Gothic style.

In the altar of the major chapel, there is a marvellous altarpiece by Vasco de la Zarza with paintings by Pedro Berruguete and Juan de Borgoña with scenes of Christ´ s life. The cloister and the sacristy are in Gothic style from the XV Century, and in the second one, we can find the famous monstrance by Juan Arfe. In the ambulatory, we can find the sepulchre of the bishop Don Alfonso de Madrigal, El Tostado, in alabaster, by Vasco de la Zarza.