Valladolid - Cathedral

Some 500m/550yd east of the Plaza Mayor stands the Cathedral, begun by Juan de Herrera in 1580 on an ambitious scale, continued by Alberto Churriguera from 1730 onwards but never completed. Herrera's design for Valladolid Cathedral provided a model followed by many churches in Spain and its South American colonies, its plain and massive architecture marking a break with the elaborate ornament of the Plateresque style. Of the four corner towers which were planned only the south tower was built (restored in 1885 after its collapse in 1841). The most notable features of the spacious interior (122m/400ft long, 62m/203ft wide) are the high altar by Juan de Juni (1561; originally in the church of Santa María la Antigua), the fine Renaissance choir-stalls and an "Assumption of the Virgin" by Velázquez.