Valencia Cathedral

Built between the 13th and 15th centuries on the site of a Visigothic cathedral that had become a mosque under Moorish rule, the Catedral de Valencia is a textbook of medieval Spanish architecture — the apse is Romanesque, the body is Gothic, and the main door (the Puerta de los Hierros) is exuberantly Baroque. The interior is more austere than the exterior suggests, with a single Gothic nave and several side chapels worth lingering in.

The famous Holy Chalice Chapel is to the right of the main altar. Climb the octagonal Miguelete bell tower (207 steps, no lift) for one of the best views of the old city's rooftops and domes. The cathedral is open daily, with a small admission fee that includes the tower and the small cathedral museum.

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The cathedral's small octagonal Chapel of the Holy Chalice holds an agate cup that the Vatican and most Catholic scholars consider the most likely candidate for the actual Holy Grail used at the Last Supper. The Council of Trent met here; popes pray on it; and Indiana Jones, somehow, did not pick it.

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