Spain, Zaragoza, La Seo, Mixture Of Architectural Styles. (Photo by Education Images/UIG via Getty Images)

UIG via Getty Images

La Seo

Top choice in Zaragoza


Dominating the eastern end of Plaza del Pilar, La Seo is Zaragoza's finest work of Christian architecture, built between the 12th and 17th centuries and displaying a fabulous spread of styles from Romanesque to baroque. It stands on the site of Islamic Zaragoza's main mosque (which itself stood on the Roman forum's temple site).

La Seo's northeast external wall is a Mudéjar masterpiece, deploying classic brickwork and colourful ceramics in complex geometric patterns. Inside, beautiful fan vaulting adorns the ceiling while the numerous elaborate chapels, framed by encrusted stonework, ring the changes from the eerily solemn Capilla de San Marcos to the golden baroque baldachin of the Capilla del Santo Cristo. The exquisite 15th-century alabaster high altarpiece is well worth scrutiny too. The attached Museo de Tapices houses a collection of Flemish and French tapestries considered the best of its kind in the world.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Zaragoza attractions

1. Museo de Tapices

0.03 MILES

La Seo's tapestry museum (included in the cathedral's admission price) is no afterthought. It is considered to be the best collection of its kind in the…

2. Museo del Foro de Caesaraugusta

0.03 MILES

The rhomboid building on Plaza de la Seo is the entrance to the excavated remains of the substructures of Roman Caesaraugusta's forum, below ground level…

3. Alma Mater Museum

0.06 MILES

Slick multimedia exhibits set an arty tone as you follow a skilfully laid-out trajectory through the older elements of the building (a former royal and…

4. Museo del Puerto Fluvial

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This small museum displays Roman river-port installations, exposed beneath glass walkways and comprising remains of a vestibule at the northeast corner of…

5. La Lonja

0.08 MILES

Now an exhibition hall, this finely proportioned, pale-brick, Renaissance-style building, just east of the basilica, was constructed in the 16th century…

6. Museo de las Termas Públicas

0.12 MILES

The smallest of Zaragoza's Roman museums displays the subterranean remains of the city's one-time bathhouse. The ruined pool is not particularly…

7. Museo Goya

0.13 MILES

Apart from Madrid’s Museo del Prado, this exceedingly well-laid-out museum contains arguably the best exposé of the work of one of Spain’s greatest…

8. Museo del Teatro de Caesaraugusta

0.19 MILES

The finest in Zaragoza's quartet of Roman museums was discovered during excavation of a building site in 1972. Great efforts, including an entertaining 15…