Cattedrale dell'Almudena
مدريد
The Almudena Cathedral is Madrid's main church. It took a hundred and ten years to build, from 1883 to 1993. It stands on the hill of the old Arab citadel.
An Arabic name
Around the year 860, under Emir Muhammad I, the Arabs built a walled citadel here. In Arabic it was called al-mudayna, and that is where the name Almudena comes from.
Tradition says that in 1085 King Alfonso VI found a statue of the Virgin hidden in a wall tower. Since then the Virgen de la Almudena has been Madrid's patron saint.
A hundred and ten years of building
On 4 April 1883 King Alfonso XII laid the first stone. Francisco de Cubas designed it in Gothic style, inspired by the great French cathedrals.
Donations were not enough and the work went very slowly. The underground church opened in 1911.
Different styles in one church
In the 1940s the architects Fernando Chueca and Carlos Sidro changed the design. They wanted a simpler exterior, in harmony with the building opposite.
That is why the church has columns and simple lines outside, while inside it has pointed arches and stained glass. In June 1993 the cathedral was finally consecrated, more than a hundred years after the first stone.
