Cuenca Cathedral is a Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

 in the city of Cuenca

Cuenca, Spain

-History:When the Iberian peninsula was part of the Roman Empire there were several important settlements in the province, such as Segóbriga, Ercávica and Gran Valeria...

 in Cuenca Province in the Castile-La Mancha

Castile-La Mancha

Castile-La Mancha is an autonomous community of Spain. Castile-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities...

 region of south-eastern central Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. Exceptional expression of Gothic Anglo-Norman, begun in 1196.
The wife of King Alfonso VIII, Eleanor Plantagenet of England, daughter of King Henry II Plantagenet of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, Duchess of Aquitaine, Sister of Richard the Lionheart, who inspired this cathedral. The influence of the Norman court of King Alfonso VIII, defined the construction of this cathedral, the first Gothic cathedral of Castile, together with that of Avila. Work began in the year 1196 and was completed in 1257.

It has a Latin cross plan (that is, the arm of the cross reaching from the main entrance to the altar is considerably longer than the other arms) and a seven-sided polygonal apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...

. The facade was rebuilt by Vicente Lampérez in the early twentieth century.

The cathedral is officially the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Gracia ("Basilica of Our Lady of Grace"). Unlike many other cathedrals in Spain, photography is not normally allowed in the interior.

External links

• Photoset on Flickr, includes seven pictures of the cathedral interior

• Photos