What if I told you this cathedral stands on top of nearly 1,700 years of history? It all started with a 4th-century Christian basilica, the first church built here when the city was still under Roman rule. That church was later converted into a mosque during the Muslim rule. After a brutal raid in the 10th century left it badly damaged, the city began to rebuild. In the 11th century, a new Romanesque cathedral rose on the same site. That building was replaced again in 1298, when construction began on the grand Gothic cathedral you see today — a massive project supported by nobles, merchants, and ordinary citizens. It took over 150 years to complete, and the monastery beside it was finished in 1448. The façade wasn’t added until the early 1900s, thanks to a local banker, Manuel Girona, who paid to finish what medieval architects had started.