Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar — cathedral
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Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar

Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza

  • 1 min read
  • 41.657° N 0.878° W

Interesting facts

  • The last two of the four corner towers were finished only in 1961, almost ninety years after the main dome.
  • Each of the four corner towers rises to a height of close to 100 metres above the banks of the Ebro.
  • Pilgrims kiss the jasper column through a small oval opening cut into its casing at the back of the Holy Chapel.
  • The column is usually draped in a cloth mantle and is shown bare only on the 2nd, 12th and 20th of each month.
  • Goya's dome fresco displeased the cathedral chapter with its loose brushwork, and the dispute left him estranged from his brother-in-law Francisco Bayeu.
  • Antonio González Velázquez painted the central elliptical dome above the Holy Chapel in 1753.
  • The statue of the Virgin was canonically crowned in 1905 with a crown of gold and precious stones valued at 450,000 pesetas.
  • Twelve massive pillars carry the vaults of the nave and aisles inside the vast rectangular hall.
  • Following Aragonese tradition, the exterior is built of brick, while the interior is finished in stucco.
  • The church's organ tradition goes back to 1463, and its main organ was built in 1529 by Juan de Moreto and Esteban Ropic.

Why it is worth it

Few churches announce themselves like the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar: a long rectangular block beside the Ebro, crowned by eleven domes and pinned at the corners by four towers. The building is Baroque, begun in 1681 under Charles II and only finished in 1872 when the main dome and last spire were completed. Much of its present shape comes from Ventura Rodríguez, who from the mid-eighteenth century enlarged it to roughly 130 metres by 67. It shares the role of Zaragoza's cathedral with La Seo, which stands nearby.

The reason for all this is a small object. Local tradition holds that in the year 40 the Virgin Mary appeared to the apostle James on the riverbank and left him a jasper column, making this — so the story goes — the first church ever dedicated to her. The column and a wooden statue only 39 cm tall stand in Rodríguez's Holy Chapel of 1754 at the eastern end, the most visited part of the church. Every nation of Hispanic colonial origin has donated a vestment for the statue, and its feast on 12 October coincides with the Día de la Hispanidad.

Look up before you leave. Vaults around the Holy Chapel carry frescoes by Francisco Goya, among them the Queen of Martyrs, while his father José oversaw much of the gilding in the building. The alabaster altarpiece carved by Damián Forment in the sixteenth century is a survivor of the Gothic church that preceded the present one. And two bombs dropped on the basilica during the Spanish Civil War are on display: three fell on the building and none of them exploded.

Getting there

The basilica stands beside the Ebro in central Zaragoza, about 0.1 km from the city centre. Zaragoza Airport (ZAZ) is about 13.6 km away. Zaragoza–Delicias station, served by AVE high-speed trains between Madrid and Barcelona, is the main arrival point by rail.

Plan your visit

We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.

Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Aragon 8The Most Beautiful Places in Spain 150The Most Beautiful Cathedrals in Spain 10The Most Beautiful Sacred Places in Spain 30The Most Beautiful Cathedrals 81The Most Beautiful Sacred Places 623

From the encyclopaedia

The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar is a Catholic church in the city of Zaragoza, Aragon. It is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Pillar, praised as "Mother of the Hispanic Peoples" by Pope John Paul II. It is reputed to be the first-ever church dedicated to Mary.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

41.65688, -0.87833per Wikidata