Cathedral of Pamplona (Santa María la Real)

The Cathedral of Pamplona (Catedral de Santa María la Real) stands at the northern edge of the old town, occupying the highest point of the city's medieval plateau above the Río Arga. The building's most striking exterior feature is its austere Neoclassical west façade, added between 1783 and 1806 by the architect Ventura Rodríguez to replace the original Gothic portal, giving the building an unusually restrained street appearance. The Gothic interior, however, is of the highest quality: a single soaring nave constructed between the 14th and 15th centuries, lit by large tracery windows and housing the alabaster tomb of King Charles III of Navarre ('the Noble') and his wife Eleanor of Trastámara — one of the finest late Gothic funerary monuments in Spain. The cloister is the cathedral's greatest treasure: a masterpiece of 14th–15th century Gothic stonework with intricately carved tracery, sculpted doorways, and an atmosphere of serene enclosure that contrasts with the busy old town outside. The Door of the Amparo (Puerta del Amparo), leading from the nave to the cloister, is particularly notable for its carved tympanum. The museum contains Roman mosaics, Romanesque capitals recovered from the original building, a Gothic silver monstrance, and the 13th-century Romanesque figure of the Virgen de la Vega. Late afternoon light between 4:00 and 6:00 PM enters the nave tracery windows most favourably.