NAVAS DE TOLOSA ALTARPIECE

SURROUNDINGS 

The Cathedral of Santa María la Real in Pamplona is an exceptional group of monumental buildings that not only conserves its more classic premises in these kinds of buildings (temple, sacristy, cloister, etc.), but also other service facilities originally conceived as being at the disposal of the Chapter and which have been lost in most other similar constructions (dormitory, refectory, kitchens, etc.). Some of these building  are being used to house the permanent Occidens Exhibition.

Gothic is the dominant style: XIV century as far as its magnificent cloister is concerned, and XV century for the cathedral with its Latin cross floor plan distribution with three naves and six sections, polygonal chancel and spacious transept. Construction of the building started in 1394 on the remains of a Romanesque temple that had been built on a temple of the same style that, in turn, had been built on an even older building dating from the X century. The Chapterhouse, sacristy, vestry and library are all in XVIII century Baroque style. The façade, however, is Neo-Classic in style and dates from the end of that same century and the beginning of the next.