The Cathedral of Santa María de Lugo is a Catholic temple, episcopal seat of the Diocese of Lugo, located in the homonymous city, in Galicia (Spain).

In 2015, in the approval by Unesco of the extension of the Camino de Santiago in Spain to "Caminos de Santiago de Compostela: French Way and Northern Ways of Spain", it was included as one of the 21 elements registered individually.

There is no news of what could have been the first church of Lugo from its early evangelization, possibly in the 1st century, until the times of Bishop Odoario, in the middle of the 8th century.

We know that this bishop, who is evoked by a medieval acrostic on a stone placed over the eastern interior door of access to the temple, carried out the restoration of the then pre-existing building.

In the first third of the 12th century the building was in such conditions that Bishop Pedro III with his council and other notable people of the city were obliged to arrange in 1129 with the teacher Raimundo the construction of a new temple in accordance with the architectural style of that time. prevailing, the Romanesque.

The current cathedral is, therefore, predominantly Romanesque in style; Its construction began in 1129 and ended in 1273. It was designed by the master Raimundo de Monforte and dedicated to Santa María, in his dedication to the Virgin of the Big Eyes.

The cathedral has the papal privilege of permanent exhibition of the Blessed Sacrament, hence the chalice and the host that appear on the city's coat of arms with the legend Hic hoc misterivm fidei firmiter prifitemvr (We faithfully believe in this mystery), in reference to the mystery of the Eucharist and that was transferred to the coat of arms of Galicia. It has been a World Heritage Site since 2015, declared by UNESCO. This fact makes Lugo known as the city of Sacramento.