OLD CATHEDRAL

Every day: 10:00 AM to 7:30 PM.
Admission:
- 4 €.
- 3.25 € (groups of more than 20 people).
- 2.50 € (Spanish students).
- Free admission (only Spaniards): Tuesday morning until 12 PM.
Closing on Sunday afternoons (November, December, January, February).

OLD CATHEDRAL
The Old Cathedral is one of the most prominent monuments of Spanish Romanesque architecture. Started in 1140 and completed a century later, it has three naves, a transept, and three semicircular apses. It is covered with simple ribbed vaults, and the transept is topped by a unique semispherical dome, called the Rooster Tower, with clear Eastern influence.

Inside, the remarkable set of medieval sculptures that decorate the capitals and the numerous tombs from the 13th and 14th centuries, along with a 16th-century organ by Maestro Salinas, a friend of Fray Luis de León, are noteworthy.

It has interesting Gothic burials.

Its main altarpiece is of great beauty, with valuable paintings from the mid-15th century, depicting the life of Christ. In the center, there is an extraordinary Romanesque image of the Virgin of La Vega, the patron saint of the city, from the 12th century, covered with bronze plates and enamels.
The upper part features a fresco of the Last Judgment.

The University was founded in its cloister in 1218. The Chapel of Santa Bárbara, built in 1340, where degree and doctoral examinations took place until 1843, is still preserved. From here derives the phrase "to be in chapel" when making an intellectual effort.

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