Cathedral of Santa Ana

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Religious architecture · Year: c. 1500 · Authors: Diego Nicolás Eduardo, Laureano Arroyo, José Luján Pérez, Fernando Navarro, Manuel Oraá

The Cathedral of Santa is a Gothic and Late Gothic structure, with a few Rennaissance touches and in true Mudejar tradition, all wrapped up in a Neoclassical skin. The following are the three stages of its construction:

- 1504-1570: Gothic phase, with Llarena, Palacios, Barea, and Narea intervening. This is the moment in which the façade of the two Torres de los Caracoles were erected, between which the Próspero Cassola doorway is placed. It is also the time in which one of most significant investments in the Canaries was made in the shape of one of its chapels. It can be seen at the chapel of Our Lady of La Antigua, now known as Santa Teresa, in which two Gothic arched domes sit on classist supports.

- 1570-1781: Phase in which work was suspended, with the building only half done. the wall being erected as far as the the transept level. The Courtyard of Los Naranjos, the Puerta del Aire, the Baroque altarpiece of San Fernando all belong to this period. Of the active artists of this time, we mustn't forget Juan de Lucero and Alonso de Ortega.

- 1781-1910:The Neoclassic phase, with the termination of the cimborrio y cabecera; with the construction of the outer Neoclassical casing, the knocking down of the primitive Gothic façade, and with the enconadas disputas entre el Cabildo catedralicio, Hermosilla, Diego Nicolás Eduardo y demás.

The Cathedral of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is undeniably a Gothic style unit on the inside. It also has a quite dynamic ritmo tectónico, despite the elevation of the naves almost to the height of the central and lateral ones reducing its impulso ascensional. Neither can it be denied that the Cathedral of Santa Ana lacks the principle of transparency, meaning in layman's terms that the essence of its Gothic architecture has not been assimilated.

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