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. We will "meet" Mr. Hollande later).

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), whome we had met so often in Catalonia.

Bishop Otto of Urgell (1095-1122) initiated the present cathedral, planned and built by the architect (a term unknown in 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 prefered 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 remodelled. Josep Puig i Cadafalch, actually an architect connected to the "Modernista", led the reconstruction of the whole complex from 1918 on.

The northern portal of the Cathedral of Santa Maria is "just" a side door, but it has some extraordenary capitals.

Here are the three capitals of the left side.

On the left is a lion devouring an animal. The hind legs of that animal still stick out of the lion´s mouth. This is similar to carvings from Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. A strange beast with a humanoid face is in the center, here a head sticks out of the mouth. the creature has a large, nicely combed mane.
On the right is (another) Luxuria - exactly in the same position as the Luxuria/mermaid on the right side of the portal, but very different. Here only the top part of the body can be seen - and another parallel - as well two persons look over Luxuria´s shoulders.