Overview
Charles V wanted a mausoleum for his grandparents in the city that completed the Reconquest, and Diego de Siloé turned Enrique Egas’s Gothic plan into a Renaissance one after 1528 — the piers are Gothic in section and classical in dress. The Royal Chapel, finished first, holds the tombs of the Catholic Monarchs, their daughter Joanna and her husband, with the lead coffins visible in the crypt below the marble effigies. The cathedral’s rotunda was designed to be seen from the high altar as a burial church.
Highlights
The Royal Chapel is a separate ticket and is the more moving of the two: the sculpture is by Fancelli and Ordóñez and the crypt below is plain lead boxes. Look up in the cathedral for the height of the nave against the darkness of the aisles. Both are in the middle of the shopping streets, so they fit into any afternoon.