Why go
Architecture-minded visitors should compare the sanctuary with the rest of the building. Its preserved triforium, the double ambulatory, and chapels of alternating shapes make the east end more than a passage around the altar. Notice how the later interventions leave the Gothic plan recognizable instead of replacing it.
The full story
The thirteenth-century design drew on French Gothic churches but made a notably broad interior: five naves lead toward a double ambulatory behind the sanctuary. That second passage accommodates a sequence of chapels with alternating rectangular and triangular plans. Look upward in the sanctuary for the triforium, a gallery-like band of arches. Its cusped and interlaced forms show Mudéjar influence, while much of the nave’s earlier triforium was later replaced by larger stained-glass windows. These changes make the building’s construction history visible in one walk. The main vessel uses Gothic vaulting, with more elaborate ribs in the transept and chancel. Later patrons kept reshaping the cathedral rather than treating its first design as finished. Cardinal Cisneros sponsored major work including the Mozarabic chapel and the main altarpiece; other archbishops added chapels and decoration. The result is a building where the broad medieval plan holds together many later decisions.