Plasencia: A Cathedral Left Half Built

Alfonso VIII founded Plasencia in 1186 and stamped its arms with the motto Ut placeat Deo et hominibus — that it may please God and men. Clement III created the diocese in 1189; the Almohads took the town in 1196 after the Castilian defeat at Alarcos, and Alfonso VIII got it back. Placentia in Newfoundland and Placentia in California are both named from it. It has two cathedrals joined together: the old Romanesque-Gothic one of the 13th century, and a new one begun in 1498 to replace it that was never finished, so the money ran out and the two were simply left stuck to each other, with the join visible. The new one has choir stalls by Rodrigo Alemán carved with scenes nobody expects to find in a cathedral.