Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena
Neo-Gothic cathedral rebuilt over a legendary hidden Virgin, more than a century in the making.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Catedral de Santa María la Almudena in Madrid traces the legend behind its name: Christians hiding a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary inside the city walls as Muslim armies advanced in the eighth century, and the centuries of Muslim rule that followed. It picks up in 1083, when King Alfonso VI retook the city and led soldiers and clergy along those same walls searching for the hiding place, guided by little more than one old woman's fading memory. You'll also hear how the cathedral itself took over a century to build, interrupted by civil war.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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