Historical Builder › Cathedrals › Burgos Cathedral
How Long Did It Take to Build Burgos Cathedral?
Short answer: about 346 years, from 1221 to 1567.
A Gothic Christ figure with real hair and nails of horn, said by tradition to have been carved by Nicodemus himself.
What the sources say about the building period
Begun in the 13th century (1221 according to secondary sources); completed in the 15th–16th centuries. UNESCO World Heritage Centre Official source
Stone and crew in numbers
- Country and type
- Spain, cathedral
- Stone in the walls
- 60,000 to 100,000 m³ Estimate
- For comparison
- about 32 Olympic pools of stone, or 8,000 truckloads
- Average crew
- about 28 workers (model value: the crew that would need exactly this long, working without a break)
Volume basis: about 106 m long; towers 84 m; sources disagree on the plan size. Checked against measurements. Our estimates come from published dimensions and are shown as a range. The result is a simple model, not a measured fact.
Where the stone came from
Limestone from the quarries of Hontoria de la Cantera, a nearby town. Structurae: Burgos Cathedral, Informes de la Construcción: stone of Burgos Cathedral Secondary source
Plan
Legend: tradition, not evidence
The Christ of Burgos was carved by Nicodemus himself, who helped to bury Jesus.
What we know: It is a Gothic sculpture of wood covered with animal skin, with real hair and nails of horn, made to look alive. Sources from the 15th century onwards repeat the Nicodemus story.
Illapa: El Cristo de Burgos, entre el documento y la leyenda, Dialnet: Cristo de San Agustín o de Burgos Tradition, not evidence
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