Cathedral of our Lady of La Almudena

Cathedral of our Lady of La Almudena : The Michelin guide review

Built on the site of the Great Mosque, this is a huge and rather unattractive building. From 1083 onwards, the Mosque was replaced by a church, built to house a miraculous picture of the Virgin found on the ramparts. In 1885, Toledo accepted the Vatican's decision to make Madrid the capital of a diocese - and a diocese means a cathedral. Hence the sensibly slow progress of the work which, between neo-gothic and baroque, resulted in the consecration of the building by Pope John-Paul II in 1983.