La Almudena cathedral information in Madrid - Madrid monuments - Spain
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MADRID Information: ALMUDENA CATHEDRAL |
| Once more, in the street after leaving the palace, visitors are immediately confronted with the main fa~ade of the Almudena Cathedral, recently consecrated for worship, whose history seems to be lost in the early years of the Christian era. 
Tradition tells us that, at the beginning of the first century A.D., the apostle James passed through these lands when there was only a small Roman hamlet, and built a tiny church. where he left a statue of the Virgin. The carving was preserved through the centuries but, when the Arab invasion was imminent, the people decided to hide it in one of the lookout towers in the wall built by the Romans. The Muslims occupied the territory and the church became a mosque. and. as time went by. all memory of how to recover the Virgin was lost. After the re-conquest of the city. a series of processions were held to ask for it to re-appear, and on the very last day, a turret in the wall collapsed exposing the carving. To everyone's great amazement, it was still lit by the two lamps placed by it when it had been hidden. The Virgin was given the name of the Arab wall, or AI-Mudaina, where she was found, and a church dedicated to St. Mary was built close by. At the beginning of the 16th century, Pope Lean X issued a bull authorising a cathedral to be built in Madrid dedicated to the Almudena Virgin (Virgen de La Almudena), with the first stone being laid in 1623. However, the project ground to a halt and was not brought to life again until the 19th century, after the church to St. Mary had been pulled down in 1868 to make way for work on the viaduct.  During the reign of Alfonso XII, the king pushed forward the prqject after the death of his first wife, Marla de las Mercedes, so that the queen could be buried there. She could not rest in the Royal Vault in the Escorial Monastery (Monasterio de El Escorial) since she had died without leaving any heirs. The first stone of the future cathedral was laid on the 4th of April, 1883. The Marquis de Cubas made the original design with a main part very similar to the cathedral at Reims. In 1911, the crypt was open to worshippers, but the building work went through a lengthy and costly period, undergoing many modifications after the Civil War, until it was finally consecrated on the 15th of June, 1993 by his Holiness Pope John Paul II. The year 2004 was another important milestone in the history of La Almudena, as H.R.H. Don Felipe de Borbon, Prince of Asturias, announced on the day of his engagement to Doña Letizia Ortiz, that they would be holding the marriage ceremony in the Cathedral on the 22nd of May. Just opposite lie the remains of the main length of the Arab wall still preserved in Madrid, in the Emir Mohamed I park.  Where Bailen and Mayor Streets meet there are some very interesting sites' for visitors, such as the Uceda Palace (Palacio de Uceda), or Council Hall (Palacio de los Consejos), designed by Francisco de Mora at the beginning of the 17th century, and now the Government Offices and headquarters of the Council of State. The building is very plain and considered as the first great palace to be built in Madrid once the city had definitely become the capital. It is the first example of the architecture of the House of Austria, which follows the plan of the Escorial Monastery, built by Juan de Herrera. It consists of elements which are easily identifiable features in other buildings in Madrid, such as the use of bricks for walls, and granite for doorways, bases and corners, and towers topped with spires, in this case lost to later reforms.  In Mayor Street near the palace, a monument was erected commemorating the victims of an attack on the 31 st of May, 1906 on the carriage in which Alfonso X III and his wife, DaM Victoria Eugenia were riding. The perpetrator of the attack, an anarchist named Mateo Morral, swallowed his last drink in a small tavern at number 84, Casa Ciriaco, before throwing the bomb and being condemned to death by hanging. On the same side as where this attack took place, opposite the entrance to the government offices, stands the Abrantes Palace, headquarters of the Italian Institute of Culture, built in the mid-17th century and renovated during the 19th century. Next to this. under a protective glass panel are the remains of the Parish Church of St. Maria de La Almudena (Parroquia de Santa Maria de La Almudena). The same passage used to hold the house of Ana de Mendoza y la Cerda. the famous Princess of Eboli, arrested in 1579 on the orders of Felipe II. 
Back in Bailen Street once more, it is worth looking at one of the corners of Madrid that is intimately bound up with the passions of the people of the capital. The Viaduct was built to avoid the deep cutting of Segovia Street. where many people had ended their lives by jumping down onto the road surface. The first Viaduct was built of metal in 1868 to a design by Fernandez de los Rios. The one seen nowadays is a later model, dating from 1931. |
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