Malaga Trip: Part 1 Catedral de Malaga

This last Saturday, John and I went to Malaga.

It is 3 hours away located on the Costa del Sol, which is the resort coast. Every single inch of the coast is covered in massive hotels, world cuisine restaurants, and signs in English. It was a rainy day and this photo was taken from the bus, so it is not great, but it shows how busy and crowded the Costa del Sol is. We live on the much more laid back Costa de la Luz!

Malaga is a beautiful city. We only had 5 hours there, and we could have spent so much more time. It is a great place to go for the weekend.

We started with the usual: The Cathedral!

I personally cannot get enough of these...yet. I am sure you can see that the cathedral pictures are VERY similar, and one could possibly say that if you see one, you have essentially seen them all.

Catedral Ceiling 120 feet up

But I love the atmosphere, smell, hushed quiet, striking difference between dark and light areas, and especially the small chapels that extend from the walls. Each one has its own focus with paintings, sculpture, and sometimes a tomb. They can be so dramatically different from one another!

Here is a small chapel that consisted of only this sculpture.

Look at the dramatic lighting. That is the Baroque style, like theater.

This chapel was much larger and had a tomb.

This chapel is massive! It is the chapel of the patron saints of Malaga.

It is even more fun when they have a crypt you can visit like the one in Cadiz. The acoustics are so scary there!

This catedral has a small museum upstairs with relics and art. The whole thing was lit a warm red. That is not the picture that makes it look that way.

As usual, this catedral was built on Mosque ruins, although there is not much to show it. Started in the 1500's, it was also never really finished. It only has one bell tower! This gave it the local nickname, the one armed lady. This glass rendition of the Catedral shows the one bell tower. Also as usual for Spain's catedrals, because it took so long to build, it was started in Gothic, but has Renaissance and Baroque mixed in.

Just as each Catedral we have seen so far has a belltower, high alter, and chapels, this one also has that gigantic choir of saints with massive organs on each side.

I want to hear one these babies the next time we go.

This choir came with a guide naming each saint lined up here. They are all each a different character with telling features that reveal to Good Catholics which Saint they are.

(See all the photos from the trip HERE.)

John contemplates a career change.