Catedral de Santa María Magdalena
Rising above Getafe's rooftops with an authority that surprises first-time visitors, the Cathedral of Santa María Magdalena is a genuine architectural statement — a late-Gothic and Renaissance basilica that became a cathedral only in 1991 when the Diocese of Getafe was created. Step inside and the scale will stop you in your tracks.
Architecture Worth Craning Your Neck For
Construction began in the late 15th century and stretched across two hundred years, which means the building layers Gothic ribbed vaulting, Renaissance portal detailing and Baroque retablo work in a way that rewards slow, attentive looking.
The main altarpiece is a gilded Baroque tour de force dedicated to Mary Magdalene, its carved figures painted in vivid polychrome that still glows under the cathedral's warm interior light.
The Virgen de los Ángeles
The cathedral's most venerated object is a small Romanesque carving of the Virgin, the Virgen de los Ángeles, patron of Getafe, housed in her own chapel and surrounded by ex-votos left by centuries of devoted locals.
Every year in late April the image is carried through the streets in a procession that fills the town centre — if your visit coincides with it, do not miss it.
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