València’s huge Gothic cathedral is really three sites – the cathedral itself, the museum within it, and the bell tower. The latter is supposedly a must-do for healthy thigh-burn and views of the Cuitat Vella; alas the weather, cloudy the past few days, has turned to rain and they’ve closed it.

The cathedral itself is (deep breath) an 18th C Neoclassical renovation of a 13-16th C partly Romanesque but mainly Gothic structure built over a 10th C mosque built over a 6th C Visigothic church built over a 1st C Roman temple. (Dates approximate. The smart money says there’s a 50,000 BCE Neanderthal cafe and gift shop further down, still waiting to be discovered.)

The exterior shows a variety of styles; inside, it’s glorious and feels mostly harmonious even though the C. 18 “improvements” are very obvious:

We often avoid audio guides. On this occasion we got one in English and one in Spanish but rapidly abandoned the Spanish one – too much work given the challenging acoustics and complexity of the information. The density of historical detail here made the English guide well worth it.

The historical riches are astounding, e.g. a couple of Goyas displayed without fanfare in one of the umpteen ornate side chapels, the elaborate stone pulpit from which St Vincent Ferrer preached in this very spot around 1410, and gorgeous C16 frescoes of musician-angels that were only rediscovered in 2004.

The museum is contained within an outer part of the cathedral. Tremendous riches in painting, sculpture, gold, etc., acquired in large part by gift from kings of Aragon, Castille, etc.

The grand finale, in a magnificent Gothic side chapel that would do as a small cathedral in itself, is (don’t say “supposedly” around here) the Holy Grail – brought from Jerusalem to Rome by St. Paul and thence eventually (insert vague history stretching over several countries and a dozen centuries) to Valencia. The gold is medieval – the Grail is the red cup you can just see in the middle.

Two rose windows that the audio guide barely bothered to mention:

K here. We spent the better part of 3 hours here, slowly wandering, listening to the guide, marveling at the magnitude of it all. I kept wondering how much more rich and layered it might have been if I knew more Bible stories, more Catholic saints, more art history, more architecture. One could have picked any spot in the cathedral and spent an hour with an expert digging through the details. But then again, even without the extra depth, my brain reached saturation.

Bonus pics.