Catedral de la Almudena, Madrid

The Almudena Cathedral is Madrid’s Catholic cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin of Almudena and serving as the seat of the city’s archdiocese. Its main façade stands opposite the Royal Palace, and the building’s final appearance was shaped to suit that royal setting. Francisco de Cubas designed the cathedral.

Work began in 1883 and continued for more than a century before Pope John Paul II consecrated it in 1993. The result brings together neoclassical architecture outside, Neo-Gothic architecture inside, and a Neo-Romanesque crypt. Look at the façade’s broad stone surface and the formal rhythm of its openings; they belong to the exterior treatment chosen to harmonize with the palace across from it.

Inside, contemporary chapels and sculpture share space with historical revivals and pop-art decoration, creating an intentionally varied interior. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel contains mosaics by Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, while Kiko Argüello painted the apse icons. The crypt holds a sixteenth-century image of the Virgen de la Almudena.

The cathedral also carries a royal memory: King Felipe VI married Letizia Ortiz here on 22 May 2004, when he was still crown prince. This is a cathedral whose long construction history ends in a distinctly modern mixture of sacred art and royal ceremony.