The Cathedral of Santa María, popularly known as the Old Cathedral, is a Catholic temple in Gothic style located in Vitoria-Gasteiz, capital of the Basque Country. Since the summer of 2015, the temple has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list of monuments under the title Caminos de Santiago: Camino francés y caminos del Norte de España.
It is located on the highest part of the hill on which the primitive city was founded in 1181 on the ancient village of "Gasteiz", with the name of "Nova Victoria", by King Sancho VI of Navarre (Sancho the Wise), and which later gave rise to the current city. With the birth of the diocese of Vitoria in 1862, the collegiate church of Santa María acquired the status of cathedral. It is known as the Old Cathedral, to distinguish it from the New Cathedral, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of Mary and built in the 20th century in the neo-Gothic style.
This temple, according to stylistic and formal criteria, is discreet and its relevance derives from its complex construction and its history full of diverse vicissitudes linked to the history of the city. Since the end of the 20th century (it was closed to the public in 1994), it has been the subject of a complex and comprehensive restoration plan that has won several international awards and has raised the monument's profile.
The building has been characterised by structural problems since its inception. As a result of the closure to the public, the Integral Restoration Master Plan was drawn up, the results of which were published in 1998 and the main feature of which is that the restoration work can be visited.
The city of Vitoria was founded on the village of Gasteiz in 1181 by the Navarrese monarch Sancho VI as part of the line of defence between the kingdom of Navarre and the kingdom of Castile. A few years later, in 1200, the square was taken by the Castilian King Alfonso VIII who, after the fire that devastated the city in 1202, undertook the reconstruction of the city, expanding it westwards with three new streets. The result of this urban reconstruction was the Church of Santa María, which was built to serve as a defensive walled perimeter for the reborn city.
The church was built as part of the fortified perimeter of the city. The oldest sections of the wall are preserved, closing off the northern part of the portico, and it is estimated that the wall was 7 metres high and 4 and a half metres wide.
The church built at the beginning of the 13th century, which would mark the surprisingly archaic shape of the transept, had a crypt and was surprisingly military-like, integrated into the defensive wall of the city. This first building is almost entirely preserved in some sections, such as the northern part of the transept, with very thick walls and heights of almost 20 metres.
During the reign of Alfonso X (1252-1284), the church was modified to the taste of neighbouring France, mainly in its interior. The crypt was sealed and the interior walls were covered. During the second half of the 13th century and throughout the 14th century, the church was given the Gothic appearance it has today.
On 14th February 1498, the parish became a collegiate church following the bull of 7th October 1496 that transferred the Collegiate Church of Armentia, now known as the Basilica of San Prudencio de Armentia, to Vitoria. This transfer obeyed the operation that the oligarchy of Vitoria carried out to give prestige to the city. Thus, Santa María became a collegiate church and the ecclesiastical centre of the territory.
As the status of the church was raised, renovations and beautification work began to be carried out on it. From the end of the 15th century and throughout the 16th century, different actions were carried out; the tower, the choir and the chapels of San Juan and the Immaculate Conception were built, as well as the altars of Christ, San Roque, San Marcos, San Prudencio, La Piedad, San Bartolomé, San José... and sepulchres such as those of the families of Ortiz de Caicedo, Cristóbal Martínez de Alegría and Martín Sáez de Salinas.
In the 16th century, the upper part of the building was finished, the new constructions were covered with stone vaults and the vaults of the old sections were also replaced by stone vaults. This required the construction of buttresses and external flying buttresses.
These actions, which radically changed the balance of forces in the building, were the origin of the structural problems that accompanied the building throughout its long history.