Basilica of Santa Maria of La Seu
The collegiate church of Santa Maria, also known as Santa Maria de l'Alba and popularly as the Seu, is the most representative monument in the city of Manresa, and one of the key buildings of Catalan Gothic art. The church stands on the upper plateau of Puigcardener, dominating the city, on the site of a previous one, mentioned in the 10th century, and replaced in the 12th century by a Romanesque temple.
Typology/Elements
The church, in Catalan Gothic style, is a single nave with a polygonal apse, side chapels and an ambulatory, covered with a rib vault supported by 18 pillars with an octagonal cross-section. The nave, exceptionally tall in Catalonia, is buttressed on the exterior by 18 flying buttresses and illuminated by around thirty large windows with stained-glass windows featuring historical scenes in polychrome. These two elements bring it closer to the typology of European Gothic. The dimensions of the temple are 68 m long, 33 m wide and about 30 m high. The width of the nave (18.5 m) makes it, after Girona Cathedral, one of the widest Gothic naves in Europe. The square tower bell tower is 50.5 m high.
Authorship
Berenguer de Montagut.
Other information
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