"The Cathedral Basilica of Santiago in Bilbao ( Vizcaya , Basque Country , Spain ) is the Catholic temple that since 1949 has housed the headquarters of the Diocese of Bilbao . It was built between the last quarter of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth in the Gothic style , although its facade and tower are the result of a profound reconstruction undertaken in the nineteenth century in the neo-Gothic style . The Cathedral takes its name from the patron saint of Bilbao, the Apostle Santiago el Mayor , in connection with the passage through the city of a coastal branch of theWay of Santiago . It is the most monumental Gothic church in Vizcaya and also serves as a parish. In 1819 it obtained the rank of minor basilica, being the first church to obtain this title in the Basque Country.
The current building succeeded two previous ones in the same location and with the same dedication. The first was prior to 1300, the date of the founding of the town by D. Diego López V de Haro through the Carta Puebla , and it had an exterior necropolis located around the head wall. The second temple was basically an extension of the previous one, forced before the demographic growth of the urban nucleus. This second temple was ephemeral, since in 1374 it was destroyed in a terrifying fire, after which Pope Gregory XI gave indulgences to those who gave alms for the erection of the new temple, according to a more ambitious architectural project.
The cathedral built after the disaster of 1374 is the result of a long and cumulative period of different elements: the church, the cloister, the portico, the sacristy and the tower-facade. Begun at the end of the 14th century, around 1397 , in accordance with the then prevailing classical Gothic style, the works slowly continued for a long century. By the middle of the 15th century the clerestory and ambulatory were finishedwith its five central chapels; in the second half of the century, work was carried out on the other chapels in the head and later, already on the border with the 16th century, on the side chapels of the nave. At the same time, the cloister and the Puerta del Ángel were built, which gives access from the street and which already incorporates elements of the flowery Gothic .
Thus the Gothic complex was completed, which years later, well into the 16th century, was enriched with the Sacristy, the large exterior portico and the lost Main Altarpiece, both in Renaissance style . The Main Altarpiece must have been a great artistic creation by the Franco-Flemish Guiot de Beaugrant , a teacher active in Bilbao in the mid-16th century, who made it between 1533 and 1543; Disassembled in 1805, from this altarpiece four carvings of the Fathers of the Latin Church are preserved, today placed in the Sacristy, and three other packages today located in the chapels of Pilar, Christ of Love and Santa Lucía. The November as June as 1819 RomaIt gave the church the rank of minor basilica, the first in the Basque Country. In the second half of the 19th century, the reworking of walls and vaults, the reconstruction of the Sacristy and, in the 1880s, the great reform of the entire facade, with its tower and spire, were carried out in a neo- Gothic style harmonized with the old Gothic forms, giving the temple its current appearance.
In the first third of the 20th century the cloister was restored and in the final years of the century, after the devastating floods of 1983 , when the waters of the Nervión-Ibaizábal invaded the entire Old Town of Bilbao and flooded the Cathedral, actions were taken in all the whole, repairing and cleaning the interiors and exteriors damaged by the flood. The proceedings lasted until the year 2000. As a result of this restoration, the Cathedral today presents a perfect state of conservation.
In 1949 the basilica acquired cathedral dignity when the Diocese of Bilbao was established as a dismemberment of the Diocese of Vitoria . The new diocese was instituted by Pius XII through the bull of erection Quo Commodius dated November 2, 1949. In 1950 the first prelate, Casimiro Morcillo González , took possession of the episcopal see , who consecrated the Basilica Cathedral on December 30, 1955.
It is a National Historic-Artistic Monument since June 3, 1931."
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