The Cathedral of Malaga stands in the silhouette of the city since the 16th century. The building itself is an open book on western architecture’s history  until 1782, when it was left unfinished. If you think this is one of many cathedrals you can see in Spain or Europe, you are wrong.

In fact, the first thing that catches the attention of the Cathedral of Malaga is its height. It is the second tallest cathedral in Spain, after the one in Mallorca. But its spatial distribution, with the same height for the central nave and the lateral ones, contribute to a feeling of luminosity and grandeur like few cathedrals.

Its construction began some years after the conquest of the city by the Catholic Monarchs. As in the rest of Al-Andalus, in this same place was the old Aljama mosque of Malaga. There is no trace of it, although for a time it was used as a cathedral until part of the current one was built.

The rear part stands out for its sobriety on the external, with its famous cannon-shaped gargoyles that give name to the adjacent street. Then, a series of unfinished facades begin to tell us about an unfinished project, whose most obvious symbol is the lack of the bell tower of the south tower.

There is today an ambitious project to finish the cathedral of Malaga. The part that will most likely be executed will be a gable roof that will finally end the problem of rain seepage.

The fronts of the cathedral are another jewel worth admiring. The entrance door, with that giant and massive arch crowned with two cylindrical volumes that reflect the passage from Renaissance to Baroque. The main door, in the bishop’s square, where baroque’s wealth is exposed in all its splendor, both in materials and decoration. And the gothic door, many times unnoticed, which was formerly the forgiving gate of the same mosque of Malaga.

If we talk about jewelry, another important jewel in itself is the choir of the Cathedral, a sculptural work made of wood by one of the greatest sculptors of all time, Pedro de Mena. A display of baroque imagery where you can recognize all the saints and fathers of the church, sculpted one by one with great precision and mastery.

To know the avatars of this cathedral, discover the hidden remains of the old mosque, and many stories as its relationship with the American independence war. In our Le Grand tour you will have all this data and more, like admiring the original design of the cathedral of Malaga and compare it live with its current state.