La Seu d’Urgell - Cathedral of Santa Maria

This was an important place already in pre-Roman times, known to Strabo as the city of "Orgialla". A bishopric existed already in 527 when the Bishop of Urgell attended a council in Toledo.

The bishopric here was (and still) is an important one, even the name "La Seu d'Urgell" translates to See of Urgell, and still today the Bishop of Urgell is co-prince of Andorra (The other co-prince is the French president).

The Cathedral of Santa Maria dates back to the 12th century. It had three predecessors. One of these older cathedrals was consecrated in 839 by Bishop Sisebut in the presence of Sunifred I, father of Wilfred the Hairy (aka Guifré el Pilós).

Bishop Otto of Urgell (1095-1122) initiated the present cathedral, planned and built by the architect (a term unknown at that time) "Raimundus Lambardus", but the building remained unfinished for quite a while, due to fights between the diocese and the Count Roger I of Foix, who preferred the Albingensian "heresy". In 1195 La Seu d'Urgell was sieged and looted - and at that time the present cathedral was used as a fortress.

Of course, over the next centuries, many parts were added and/or changed and modeled, as the architectural fashion changed quite a lot. Josep Puig i Cadafalch, actually an architect connected to the "Modernista", led the reconstruction of the whole complex from 1918 on.
Over the main portal of the western facade runs a long frieze, populated by a couple of strange creatures, like these two shy mermaids.