The Cathedral of Saint Mary (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''Catedral de Santa María'') is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

located in

Ciudad Rodrigo Ciudad Rodrigo () is a small cathedral city in the province of Salamanca (province), Salamanca, in western Spain, with a population in 2016 of 12,896. It is also the seat of a judicial district. The site of Ciudad Rodrigo, perched atop a rocky r ...

, Spain. It was declared ''

Bien de Interés Cultural (, , , ) is a category of the heritage register in Spain. The term is also used in Colombia and other Spanish-speaking countries. The term literally means a "good of cultural interest" ("goods" in the economic sense). It includes not only mater ...

'' on 15 September 1889. The Renaissance composers

Juan Navarro Hispalensis Juan Navarro of Seville, hence the epithet ''Hispalensis'', Marchena c. 1530 – Palencia 25 September 1580) was a Spanish composer. He is not related to the Mexican composer Juan Navarro Gaditanus, (i.e. Juan Navarro of Cadiz, c. 1 ...

and his pupil

Juan Esquivel Barahona Juan eEsquivel Barahona (c. 1560 – after 1623) was the most prominent of the last generation of Spanish church composers of the Renaissance era. Although he never served in one of the major Spanish cathedrals, his music was known throughout Sp ...

were both choirmasters at the cathedral.

Architecture

The cathedral has four doors. In the episciple-side

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

, there is a Gothic frieze with twelve figures from the Old Testament and a tympanum in which four Romanesque figures were placed in the Modern Age: from left to right Saint John, Saint Peter, Christ Pantocrator, Saint Paul, and Saint James. In the other transept the Puerta de Amayuelas opens, with a multi-lobed arch. The tower was raised by

Juan de Sagarvinaga ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philippi ...

at the end of the 18th century in a neoclassical style, after the collapse of the second tower during the Lisbon earthquake (the cathedral had had a third tower, which was demolished after the communal war).

References

Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Salamanca

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Architecture

See also

References