Cathedral or fortress? Almería’s unusually weighty, six-towered cathedral, begun in 1525, was conceived both as a place of worship and as a refuge for the population from frequent pirate raids from North Africa. Basically a Gothic/Renaissance building, it had baroque and neoclassical features added in the 18th century. You enter from Calle Velázquez via a fine cloister carved from pale stone. The vast, impressive interior has a beautiful ceiling with sinuous Gothic ribbing and is trimmed in jasper, marble and carved walnut.
On the outside of the building, check out the cute stone lions around the northwest tower and the exuberant Sol de Portocarrero, a 16th-century relief of the sun, now serving as the city's symbol, on the cathedral's eastern end.
