The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Holy Assumption , better known as Valladolid Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

 in Valladolid

Valladolid

Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. It was designed by Juan de Herrera

Juan de Herrera

Juan de Herrera was a Spanish architect, mathematician and geometrician.One of the most outstanding Spanish architects in the 16th century, Herrera represents the peak of the Renaissance in Spain. His sober style was fully developed in buildings like the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial...

.

History

The cathedral has its origins in a late Gothic collegiate church

Collegiate church

In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons; a non-monastic, or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a dean or provost...

, which was started during the late 15th century: before temporarily becoming capital of a united Spain, Valladolid was not a bishopric

Episcopal See

An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...

, and thus it lacked the right or necessity to build a cathedral. However, soon enough the Gothic collegiate church became outmoded with the growth of Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 classicizing architecture, and thanks to the newly established episcopal episcopal see, the Town Council decided to build a cathedral that would put similar constructions in neighbouring capitals in the shade.

The project as initiated would have resulted in one of the biggest cathedrals in Spain. When the construction was started, Valladolid was the de facto capital of Spain, housing king Philip II

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

 and his court. However, due to strategic and geopolitical reasons, by the 1560s the capital was moved to Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 and funds for architectural projects were largely cut. Thus the cathedral was not finished according to Herrera's design; it was further modified during the 17th and 18th centuries, such as the addition to the top of the main façade, a work by Churriguera

Churriguera

The Churriguera family consisted of at least two generations of Spanish sculptors and architects, originally from Barcelona, but who had their greatest impact in Salamanca...

.

Description

Today it contains a rich musical archive housing 6000 works, and a 16th century altarpiece by Juan de Juni

Juan de Juni

Juan de Juni was a French–Spanish sculptor, who also worked as a painter and architect.-Career:...

 taken from the church of Santa María La Antigua, also in Valladolid, while the altarpiece by El Greco

El Greco

El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...

 originally in the cathedral, has been moved elsewhere.

The building, declared of Cultural Interest in 1931, is dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Asunción

Assumption of Mary

According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...

. Although designed by Juan de Herrera, its construction was directed mainly by his disciples in the first half of the 17th century. Diego de Praves was the main contributor, and he was succeeded by his son. The design plan was a rectangle with two towers in the corners of the main façade, and another two finishing in pyramids, in the chancel.

It had a transept with two great doors in the ends. The main chapel was separated from the reredos

Reredos

thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....

, so processions could pass round the back. There are chapels along the length of the two sides between buttresses.

The lower part of the main façade takes the form of triumphal arch in the Doric order

Doric order

The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...

 Due to an error in construction the portal arch is rather pointed.

In the 18th century Alberto Churriguera erected the second part in imitation of the façade of the church of El Escorial

El Escorial

The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a historical residence of the king of Spain, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, about 45 kilometres northwest of the capital, Madrid, in Spain. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, and...

. Capping the balustrade are statues of St. Ambrose, St. Augustine

St. Augustine

-People:* Augustine of Hippo or Augustine of Hippo , father of the Latin church* Augustine of Canterbury , first Archbishop of Canterbury* Augustine Webster, an English Catholic martyr.-Places:*St. Augustine, Florida, United States...

, St. Gregory and St. Jerome. Then the tower on the side of the vestry was erected which, after suffering damage in consequence of the Lisbon earthquake (1753), finally fell down in 1841; it was re-erected next to the vestry and is crowned with a statue of the Corazón de Jesús. The cathedral remains unfinished.

There are four chapels on either side. In the first there is a Neoclassical

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 liens of Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel

In the Hebrew Bible, Cain and Abel are two sons of Adam and Eve. The Qur'an mentions the story, calling them the two sons of Adam only....

 and the second is property of Juan Velerde. The third has two late 17th century large liens, work of a follower of Lucas Jordan. The next is in dedication to San Fernando and the tomb of Count Ansúrez, whose statue dates from the 16th century, the same as the railing.

The main chapel has the altarpiece made by Juan de Juni was transferred to its present position in 1922. The plasterwork of the choir was the work of Francisco Velázquez and Melchor de Beya in 1617 and is from the convent of San Pablo. In the third chapel there is a Baroque altarpiece from the 18th century and a group of statues and funerary reliefs of the Venero family, work of a disciple of Pompeo Leoni. The second chapel has a Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 altarpiece, with a sculpture of San Pedro, by Pedro de Ávila and 16th century railings.

In the vestry there are several holy liens: the Assumption, from the second quarter of the 17th century by Diego Valentín Díaz

Diego Valentín Díaz

Diego Valentín Díaz, a Spanish historical painter, and a familiar of the Holy Office, was a native of Valladolid. He painted many important pictures for churches and monasteries, especially for the church of San Benito, now a barrack, and the convents of St. Jerome and of St. Francis, of which the...

; San Jerónimo and San Jenaro by Lucas Jordan. Lastly the chapter room has several ceremonious chairs in the choir stalls of San Pablo.