Burgos Cathedral: Four Centuries of Additions

Burgos cathedral was begun in 1221 on French Gothic patterns and then substantially altered in the 15th and 16th centuries — and it is those additions, all Flamboyant, that give it its unmistakable outline. The openwork spires on the west front are German in influence and the work of Juan de Colonia in the 15th century. His crossing lantern fell down in 1539 under its own weight and Juan de Vallejo rebuilt it in Gothic-Plateresque to plans by Juan de Langres. The Constable's Chapel had the Colonia family, Diego de Siloé and Felipe Vigarny working on it. El Cid and Doña Jimena are buried under the crossing.