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date: 17/05/2012 latest update: 15/05/2012
- Location
- General structure
- Santa Maria
- Santiago Chapel
- The western portico and the belfry
- The Sacristy and other
Location
Vitoria Cathedral is located on the highest part of the hill upon which the old settlement of Gasteiz was built, within the limits of the old city walls. The hill, with the cathedral at its northern end, runs north to south about twenty metres above the Alava Plain that surrounds it in all directions. The cathedral itself is build on part of this slope, as is evident in the fact that its southern and western walls, which face the old city located on the higher ground, are raised approximately nine metres above its north-eastern façade, which is located halfway down the hill.
As a result of these geographical and historical conditions, the subsoil of the building contains a large amount of imported earth, brought in specially to help level the floor surface inside the cathedral. Another consequence of the uneven landscape is the enormous difference in the height of the walls between one side of the building and the other.
From historical documents that chart the evolution of the city's oldest quarter, we know that the cathedral once formed part of the medieval defensive battlements. This explains the thickness of its walls, which were originally windowless on the north side, as well as the presence of a ramparts walk, which ran along the entire length of the building, from the southern end of its crossing to the north-western corner of its portico, past the ambulatory, transept and north nave.
This defensive aspect of the cathedral building has, however, been obscured somewhat over the years by the construction of housing and service apartments on its eastern flank, where the steep drop from the ramparts walk to the ground (around twelve metres) would have once lent an imposing air to the outside of the ambulatory, similar to that so evident still on the northern side of the crossing. Today, the Cathedral forms part of a block of multipurpose buildings that have the effect of hiding its sheer size. This, along with the absence of a traditional 'main façade', prevents the cathedral from projecting the 'monumental' image so often associated with historical religious buildings.
Fortunately, the evolution of the city finally left a clear area at the south-western corner of the building - Santa María Square, from which visitors can gain access to the cathedral from a slightly lower floor level. To the west and north, Fray Zacarías Martínez and Santa María Streets run up the slope from the square to Cuchillería Street, along the west and north façades, respectively. This last street, which follows the curving façade halfway down the hill around what was once the old city walls, is lined with a series of later buildings.
