Visit the Good Shepherd Cathedral of San Sebastián

The Cathedral of the Good Shepherd (Basque: Artzain Onaren katedrala, Spanish: Catedral del Buen Pastor de San Sebastián) located in the city of San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, Spain. It is the seat of the suffragan Diocese of San Sebastián and subordinated to the Archdiocese of Pamplona y Tudela. The most remarkable religious building of San Sebastián, it is endowed with a strong verticality and is the largest in Gipuzkoa. Its construction took place in the last years of the 19th century in a Historicist Neo-Gothic style. The church, dedicated to the Good Shepherd, has held the rank of cathedral since 1953.

In the plans of the architect Manuel de Echave, who apparently was inspired by Cologne Cathedral, the dimensions of the church consist of:

• an area of 1,915 square metres (20,610 sq ft),
• a nave height of 25 metres (82 ft),
• a tower of 75 metres (246 ft),
• a central nave of 64 metres (210 ft) long by 36 metres (118 ft) wide at the crossing,
• and a capacity of 4,000 people.

This is a church with a Latin cross, three longitudinal aisles, transept nave and a pentagonal sanctuary. There is no ambulatory. The two gables of the transept house two large rose windows that accentuate the light inside the church. The naves up to the crossing, of which the wider and the highest is the central, are segmented into five rectangular sections covered with four-parts vaults of simple ribbing. The two arms of the transept consist of two sections arched in the same way. The crossing is the only section that features complex ribbing, incorporating tiercerons between the main veins. From the crossing to the head, the naves are extended with three sections. In this posterior space, the four aisles, two on each side, balance the width of the transept, resulting in two separate areas of equal height and divided into six sections separated by four pillars. The slender bell tower, located on the portico of the entrance, is clearly inspired by the spires of the Cologne Cathedral. The set of pilasters and buttresses terminating in pinnacles and spirelets decorated with buds enhance the verticality of the building.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article San Sebastián Cathedral , which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.