Catheral of Santa María
The history of the Old Cathedral (as it is popularly known), is in itself a synthesis of the history of Vitoria. Built on the cemetery of the primitive Gasteiz village (that can be visited nowadays thanks to the excavations), the church of Santa Maria collapsed with the 1202 fire, and Alfonso VIII (that had conquered the settlement just 2 years before), ordered the city’s reconstruction and the erection of a new church where the previous one had been, which was to serve two different purposes: to save souls and to stock weapons.

Thus the Cathedral was born, still a church, like a temple-fortress that served as a city entrance. The project changed with the centuries, in such a way that each modification was done without considering the previous ones, this was so in the 15th century (when the church became collegiate church), and finally in the Sixties, when fortification of the outer walls was reverted and the large windows enlarged for just aesthetic purposes. This ended up forcing the temple’s closure from fear that it will collapse during mass.

Today the Cathedral is open again, and offers a unique experience to visitors: a stroll through layers of time. From the vestiges of the original village, root of the current Vitoria, to the Gothic redesign in the middle of the 20th century, putting up with foundations of over one million years of antiquity, and Romanesque and Gothic plans, all perfectly perceptible by the color of the materials used in each stage. A unique opportunity for a journey through history inside a temple that, due to its peculiar characteristics and manifold functions, has become Vitoria’s main attraction.