Barcelona Cathedral

Barcelona Cathedral — formally the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, known locally as La Seu — traces its foundation to 1298, though a church has stood on the site since at least the 4th century. Construction continued in phases across six centuries, and the elaborate Gothic Revival main facade facing Plaça de la Seu wasn't actually completed until 1913, funded by a 19th-century industrialist decades after the rest of the building — meaning the most photographed part of the cathedral is far newer than the Gothic interior it fronts.

Inside, the cathedral is dedicated to Saint Eulalia, a young Barcelona martyr said to have suffered 13 tortures under Roman persecution in the 4th century, one for each year of her life; her remains rest in an alabaster sarcophagus in the crypt beneath the main altar. The nave is a fairly dark, atmospheric example of Catalan Gothic, wider and lower than northern European Gothic cathedrals, with side chapels funded by different medieval guilds still bearing their heraldic symbols.