Spain Guide
Around Madrid
Avila cathedral
Opening time: Summer Mon– Fri 10am–7.30pm, Sat 10am–8pm, Sun noon–6.30pm; winter Mon– Fri 10am–5pm, Sat 10am–6pm, Sun noon–5pm; last admission 45min before closing
Price: €4
Ávila's Catedral was started in the twelfth century but has never been finished, as evidenced by the missing tower above the main entrance. The earliest Romanesque parts were as much fortress as church, and the apse actually forms an integral part of the city walls.
Inside, the succeeding changes of style are immediately apparent; the Romanesque parts are made of a strange red-and-white mottled stone, then there's an abrupt break and the rest of the main structure is pure white stone with Gothic forms. Although the proportions are exactly the same, this newer half of the cathedral seems infinitely more spacious. The coro, whose elaborate carved back you see as you come in, and two chapels in the left aisle, are Renaissance additions. Here you can admire the elaborate marble tomb of a fifteenth-century bishop known as El Tostado (the "toasted" or "swarthy"), while the thirteenth-century sacristía with its star-shaped cupola and gold inlay decor, and the treasury-museum with its monstrous silver custodía and ancient religious images are also worth a visit.