La Almudena

Oddly enough, Madrid did not officially have a cathedral until in 1993 it was consecrated by Pope John Paul, the Almudena Cathedral. And it is that this temple has been jinxed from the beginning. In the times of Felipe II, the construction of a cathedral for the town and court was already being considered, but the monarch was more interested in completing the works of the Escorial monastery, so he did not attend to this new project, together with the struggles of power in the archdiocese of Toledo, which did not look favorably on the idea of ​​Madrid having its own archdiocese. Construction was delayed until the time of Philip IV, who together with his wife, Queen Isabella de Borbón, gave new impetus to the old project, donating a plot of land for it. But new problems arose and everything was left in the lurch again. On the occasion of the death of Queen María de las Mercedes, who could not be buried in El Escorial because she had not had any children and consequently was not the mother of a king, the long-awaited cathedral for the capital was once again considered. Finally, in 1880, the construction of the cathedral in front of the palace began, but they quickly realized that the magnificent project, a neo-Gothic church on a Romanesque crypt, could not be carried out, so years went by and remodeling and reforms, and the works of the cathedral were not completed, so the end result is "I want to and I can't". An important event was awaited for the inauguration of the temple and everything indicated that this would be the wedding of the Prince of Asturias and Leticia Ortíz, but unfortunately just a month before, Madrid suffered the worst terrorist attack in history, celebrating the funeral for the victims in the cathedral. #madrid