Cathedral of Barcelona

Thirteen white geese are wandering through the cathedral's ancient cloister right now... each one representing a year in the tragically short life of Saint Eulalia, Barcelona's co-patron saint who was martyred at just thirteen years old by the Romans. You're standing before the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, where every architectural detail whispers secrets of a construction saga that spanned six centuries. What you see before you is actually a magnificent deception. That stunning neo-Gothic façade with its soaring twin towers? It wasn't completed until 1890, funded entirely by industrialist Manuel Girona Agrafel who grew tired of staring at an unfinished church. His children finished their father's grand gesture by adding the central dome in 1913, finally completing a cathedral that began rising from these very stones in 1298. Step inside and you'll discover the genius of Catalan Gothic architecture... three naves that rise to nearly identical heights, creating the illusion of standing in one vast, luminous space rather than a traditional divided church. Hidden among the 28 side chapels, you'll find a cross that once sailed into the legendary Battle of Lepanto in 1571, now resting quietly after witnessing one of history's greatest naval battles. Beneath your feet lies the crypt of an earlier Romanesque church, built over the ruins of what the Moors destroyed in 985. Here at Pla de la Seu, in the heart of Barcelona's Gothic Quarter, thirteen centuries of faith have layered themselves into these ancient stones.