Orihuela Cathedral

The Cathedral of the Saviour and St Mary in the centre of Orihuela is a Gothic church built on the site of the town's former main mosque, and has been a bishop's seat since 1564. A combined ticket also covers the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art.

The Cathedral of the Saviour and St Mary (Catedral del Salvador y Santa María) stands in the centre of Orihuela, south of Alicante. According to the town's tourist office it was built on the site of the former main mosque, and construction began in the late 13th century. It started out as a parish church, became a collegiate church in 1413, and was made a cathedral in 1510 and definitively in 1564, when the bishopric of Orihuela was created. It is still the seat of the Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante and is listed as a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC) in the monument category. The building is in the Catalan or Levantine Gothic style, with three naves, an ambulatory and chapels between the buttresses, plus Renaissance and Baroque additions from later centuries. The bell tower belongs to the first building phase: its two lower storeys date from the 13th century, the rest was completed in the 14th, and in the 18th century it was topped with a small dome of glazed tiles. Three portals lead inside: the Gothic-Mudéjar Puerta de las Cadenas from the 14th century, the Gothic Puerta del Loreto from the 15th, and the Renaissance Annunciation portal completed in 1588 by Juan Inglés. The transept was remodelled in 1505 to designs by Pere Compte, architect of Valencia's Lonja, and its vaults have twisted ribs that imitate palm trees. In the chancel there is a monumental Renaissance railing before the high altar, designed by Jerónimo Quijano, and the Communion Chapel keeps a Gothic grille made by Pedro Moreno in 1495. The Baroque organ was built in 1733 by Nicolás de Salanova and Martín de Userralde and has more than 72 stops. The choir stalls were carved in 1716–1718 by Juan Bautista Borja and Tomás Llorens, and one chapel holds Francisco Salzillo's figure of Jesus Falling, dated 1754. The Renaissance cloister comes from the town's former Mercedarian convent and was moved to the cathedral in 1942–1943. The Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art, housed in the Bishop's Palace since 2011, holds works from the 13th to the 19th century, including Diego Velázquez's painting The Temptation of St Thomas Aquinas. One visitor praises the QR-code guide, and another describes the climb up the bell tower as narrow and steep but rewarded with a panorama of Orihuela. As it is a working church, visits have to fit around services, and a virtual tour on the cathedral's website is a good preview. It makes a good focus for a day trip to Orihuela, combining a monument with a long history with a walk around the old town.