Story

The story of Cathedral Basilica of the Virgin of Incarnation

Cathedral Basilica of the Virgin of Incarnation

Look up at the towers and you will notice that one is missing its top: the south tower was never finished for lack of money, which is why the cathedral is nicknamed 'La Manquita', the One-Armed Lady. A plaque at the base of the tower says the funds were used instead to help the British colonies that became the United States win their independence, though parish registers suggest the money may have gone to a road called the Way of Antequera.

The cathedral was built between 1528 and 1782 to plans by Diego de Siloe, in the Renaissance tradition. Its north tower is 84 metres high, making it the second-highest cathedral in Andalusia, after the Giralda of Seville.

The Baroque façade has three arches; above the side doors, medallions show Málaga's patron saints, Cyriacus and Paula, and over the centre, the Annunciation. Inside you will find the Gothic altarpiece of the Chapel of Santa Barbara, a neoclassical altarpiece from 1785 and a pair of 18th-century organs with eye-catching horizontal pipes.

This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗

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