Wow. One of the biggest cathedrals to explore with such a history and range of architecture. The modern stained glass windows creat wonderful light patterns throughout the building. Great audio guide too

Cathedrals are often the top visitor attraction in a city & I always have a mooch wherever I go, but often my memory of them meshes into one ‘samey’ cathedral fuzz. The features of the Catedral of Cuenca stood out. It grabs attention on arrival with its life size figurine depiction of the last supper & continues to thrill with its varied architecture. It’s a sizeable building with an array of ante rooms of differing styles. Another outstanding aspect is the way the stained glass windows bounce their shimmering, kaleidoscope reflections across the internal pillars. It’s worth paying the extra couple of € to enter the Triforium which enables you to climb a winding staircase for a stunning, elevated view over the main aspect of the cathedral. This also involves crossing a teeny outdoor terrace with vistas across Plaza Mayor. Additionally, don’t miss the door to the cloisters, which lead onto an external area with incredible views of the Parador & surrounds.

Like the Sagrada Familia, Cuenca Cathedral is considered unfinished, although this does not prevent it, like its world-famous Barcelona counterpart, from receiving visitors. Like many things in Spain, the cathedral has an Arab foundation. However, it is invisible. It was built on the site of a mosque. The initiator of the construction was Alfonso VIII's wife Eleanor Plantagenet, daughter of King Henry II of England and sister of Richard the Lionheart. It was precisely because of Eleanor's Norman surroundings that the cathedral turned out not to be Romanesque in style like most of the then Castilian cathedrals, but Norman-Gothic. This is generally the first Gothic cathedral in Spain. The cathedral was built from 1196 to 1257. 63 years is quite a bit by medieval standards. Then the cathedral was rebuilt in the Baroque style. The irony of fate is that the Gothic facade that we see in front of us is the result of a secondary reconstruction from Baroque back to Gothic after the collapse at the beginning of the XX century...