Ceuta Cathedral

Ceuta Cathedral
Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption
Location Ceuta
Denomination Roman Catholic
Architecture
Functional status Active
Architectural type Cathedral
Style Neoclassical, Baroque, Renaissance
Specifications
Number of towers 2
Administration
Diocese Diocese of Cadiz y Ceuta
Province Seville

The Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption (Spanish: Catedral de Santa María de la Asunción) is a Roman Catholic church located in the Spanish city of Ceuta, in a small exclave on the northwest coast of Africa.[1]

On a primitive Eastern Roman Christian church, which some researchers have identified with the one built in the 6th-century by Emperor Justinian I, the old Great Mosque of Ceuta was built, an architectural work of enormous wealth according to the preserved descriptions, which underwent several enlargements and of which hardly anything is preserved.

After the Portuguese conquest of 1415 this mosque was transformed into a Christian temple with the adaptations that were necessary and of which we barely have news. The passage of time and the damages suffered by the warlike incidents caused the ruin of the building and the need to build a new temple designed at the end of the 17th-century by the architect Juan de Ochoa. Its construction began in 1686 but was not consecrated until 1726 to the Assumption of Our Lady, due largely to the difficulties suffered as a result of the great siege to which Ceuta was subjected in those years.

Attached to the cathedral, there is a building with auxiliary departments that house the Vicariate, Secretariat, Diocesan Archive, Library and Cathedral Museum and other diocesan dependencies, in addition to the bishop's residence, around a small triangular courtyard.

It emphasize the Chapel del Santísimo with a Baroque altarpiece and the frescoes of Miguel Bernardini, besides three large canvases and the image of the Virgen Capitana of Portuguese origin (15th-century).

References

  1. ↑ Hugh Griffin (1 February 2010). Ceuta Mini Guide. Horizon Scientific Press. pp. 14–. ISBN 978-0-9543335-3-9. Retrieved 8 July 2013.

Coordinates: 35°53′16″N 5°19′00″W / 35.88778°N 5.31667°W / 35.88778; -5.31667

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