Southern Spain municipality:

Guadix is a city and municipality in southern Spain, in the province of Granada.

The city lies at an altitude of 913 metres, in the centre of the Hoya of Guadix, a high plain at the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

It is located on the Linares Baeza–Almería railway. The city was built in the vicinity of gullies and badlands.

Early history:

Evidence of human settlement in the area surrounding Guadix goes back to at least the Bronze Age.

Location and historical context:

Guadix is believed to be one of the oldest diocesan seats in Spain; tradition has it that the diocese was founded by Saint Torquatus of Acci in the first century A.D.

The cathedral sits on the site of an earlier Hispano-Visigothic church extant in the 10th century, and which functioned during the Islamic period as a mosque.

During the Reconquista, Guadix was captured by the Christian forces in 1489, and the Hispano-Visigothic church was reestablished as the seat of a bishopric.

It was given the name of the Church of Saint Mary of the Incarnation (Iglesia de Santa María de la Encarnación), was made a cathedral by a bull of Pope Innocent VIII, and was somewhat expanded under the direction of Pedro de Morales.

Plans were made to replace the old church with a Gothic cathedral as a symbol of the Reconquista, but by the time construction began, that style was already considered antiquated.

Cardinal Ávalos and others wanted a cathedral more in accord with the style of the times.

Diego de Siloé was commissioned in 1549 to develop a design reflecting the influence of the cathedrals of Málaga and Granada.

The apse, part of the crossing, the chapel of Don Tadeo and parte part of the sacristy were completed according to Siloé’s plan.