La Seu’s Basilica
If Ignatius of Loyola saw something that impacted him, from the foot of the Cardener in 1522, when he arrived in Manresa, it was, surely, the imposing image of Santa Maria. Known popularly as La Seu (The See), it is considered one of the main buildings of the Catalan Gothic.
Its elevated site housed successively an Iberian village, a Roman fortress and a Romanesque temple. The construction of the current building began in 1322, under the direction of the same architect as Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona, Berenguer de Montagut, and was completed towards the end of the 15th century, with Gothic as the dominant style. However, subsequent interventions have added elements from the Renaissance, the Baroque or even from the Gothic Revival, such as the façade of the baptistery.
The most noted elements of La Seu are the impressive rose window of the western façade, the bell and the crypt with a great marble tabernacle and eight Baroque medallions.
Inside, what draws one’s attention is the pictorial collection, where the altarpiece of the Holy Spirit by Pere Serra, one of the most valuable of 14th century Catalan painting, stands out.
