The fact that the Catholic Kings chose Granada as their burial place, gives us an idea of the importance of the city in the configuration of the new kingdom. So much so that the Emperor Carlos V also chose Granada to construct the Royal Pantheon of the Spanish monarchy and that other important personages like the Great Captain also chose to rest there forever.

It is well known that “Felipe II” saved us from the dubious honour of becoming a cemetery for distinguished personalities, constructing his own pantheon at the “Escorial” and moving the Court away from a city that he did not quite understand.

The problem that the King had with the city, or the city with the King, was the same that there was after the conquest: the integration in the new monarchy of a society formed by a complex world of religions, cultures and different customs. He wanted to create an extensive program of constructions that would “Christianize” the urban frame of the Moslem city. This way, the city would start filling up with churches, convents or civil buildings that would draw a plan more adequate to the new western mentality, and above all, a more Christian mentality of the new “granadinos” (the new people of Granada).

The nucleolus that started with the construction of the Royal Chapel and continued with the “Lonja” of the merchants, the Cathedral and, later on, the Sacrarium, is a clear example of this Christian use of the urban space. However, the project was a daring enterprise.

To construct a chapel as a burial place for the monarchs who had just conquered the city, could well be understood in different ways, more so if it was going to be constructed adjacent to the Major Mosque, and next to the “Madraza”: place for the study of the Koran and the Islamic Law. Why choose Granada, the less Christian of the Castilian cities, as a sepulchre for the most fervent Christian queen of Castile?.

Obviously, the final decision was taken by the Queen herself, who at first chose the Alhambra for her burial place, but she also made clear in her will her desire to rest forever next to the King wherever he would be buried.

The truth is that in 1504 they begin to design the Royal Chapel, a construction that, like many others of the 16th century in Granada, becomes for its visual and symbolic impact, an emblem of the policy of the monarchy towards Granada. It is curious that it was built in the Gothic style when the Renaissance style had already been used in Castile with great success, even by the Kings themselves.

Also, the building is created with a contradiction of difficult solution: the place of privilege in the Chapel had to be, by logic, the place occupied by the magnificent sepulchres of the Catholic King and Queen, a work of art by “Doménico Fancelli”, but neither was it logical that these sepulchres occupied a more important place than the High Altar. To solve this problem, the space is distortioned by placing the graves in front of the High Altar and by making the underground crypt accessible, which in this way, it becomes the main focus of attention for the visitors.

Another invention that modified the space making it smaller and more compact, is the splendid iron gate by the master “Bartolomé”. If the interior of the chapel is complex, the exterior is almost incomprehensible due to its relation with the Cathedral to which is joined. We can not forget that the real front façade of the Royal Chapel is the one that nowadays faces the interior of the Cathedral, visually connected with the High Chapel. In fact when we visit the Cathedral it is advisable to do it firstly from the outside, contemplating the façade of the building which is a kind of magnificent Baroque altarpiece and later, go all round it towards the bell tower, the Gates of “St. Jerónimo” and “Perón” and the extraordinary body that the rotunda generates on its rear part. This way we can see, amongst other things, how the square located before the façade was made to look smaller in relation to the rest of the compound showing the importance that in the 17th century the architecture had as a theatrical set designed in the permanent civic-religious show of the Baroque city. Also we can see how the different buildings that make up the puzzle join each other. The interior of the Cathedral is not as simple as it may seem, and although investigations have progressed notably, the beginning of the works and its first foundations by the master “Egas” are still immersed in a dark world of hypothesis. “Diego de Siloé “ did later the most important works. He was the great inspirer of the Renaissance in Granada along with “Lorenzo Vázquez”. It is not clear, up to what point the Gothic works done by his predecessor altered or determined the posterior evolution of the works. The first thing that catches our attention in the interior of the building is the enormous size of the columns that configurate the five naves of the plan. Some people say these columns are like this because of the necessity of covering a space that, since it was designed in a Gothic style, would reproduce the great areas of the pilgrimage churches, justifying at the same time the existence of the ambulatory which could have a processional character.

A more convincing hypothesis, leads us to think that the “Siloé’s” objective was not to take advantage of what “Egas” had done, but to construct a completely Renaissance space in the Roman style, as it was called in that period. On one hand, a Basilic plan with five naves, a simple rectangular space that reminds us in its forms of the simple constructions of the early Christianism, like the old Basilic of St. Pedro, built in wood. On the other hand, a centralized circular space, a typically Roman rotunda, used in commemorative funeral constructions and that becomes here the High Altar. In short, next to the pantheon of the Kings, the Emperor wanted to construct another family pantheon in accordance with the new times. This could explain its proximity to the old main gate of the Royal Chapel and with the “Perdón” Gate which opens on the opposite end. This way, the transept becomes some type of commemorative walk from the exterior of the Cathedral to the Royal Chapel. In short, we find ourselves before two funeral monuments, although only the Royal Chapel has been used for that purpose.

The construction of the façade by “Alonso Cano” in 1667, in the baroque period, gives its specific personality to the complex, where the mixture of styles works out with remarkable harmony. For the façade, “Cano” forgot about the funeral symbols and making a kind of theatrical backdrop or enormous altarpiece, he organizes it in three spectacular arches with a type of decoration that reminds us of those of the High Altar and even those of the Roman arches of triumph. Some few images (few images because the façade always remains humble in its decoration) manifest the Marian name under which the Cathedral is known. Amongst them, the central, circular decorative motif, sunken and framed, dedicated to the “Incarnation” and the enormous vase with white lilies, symbol of the purity of the Virgin. The “Assumption” and the “Visitation” Virgins are at the lateral gates.