Catedral de San Pedro & Diocesan Museum
Jaca's cathedral is one of the oldest Romanesque churches in Spain — its construction began around 1077, predating Santiago de Compostela's famous pilgrimage basilica — and the attached Diocesan Museum houses a collection of medieval frescoes so vivid they look freshly painted. This is sacred art at its most raw and powerful.
The cathedral itself
Step through the south portal and let your eyes adjust to the cool, dim interior where massive cylindrical columns support Romanesque arches carved with intricate chessboard and cable mouldings. The ajedrezado (chequerboard) frieze running around the exterior apse became so influential it was copied across the entire Camino de Santiago route and is now known as the 'Jaca motif'.
The cathedral treasury holds a 12th-century silver reliquary bust of Santa Orosia, patron saint of Jaca, which is paraded through the streets each June 25th in a colourful procession worth planning your trip around.
The Diocesan Museum's frescoes
Housed in the cathedral's Romanesque cloister, the Museo Diocesano de Jaca displays a breathtaking collection of Romanesque wall paintings rescued from remote Pyrenean churches in the early 20th century. The frescoes from the churches of Bagüés and Ruesta are particularly stunning — bold Byzantine-influenced figures in ochre, red and cobalt that seem to pulse with life.
The museum also holds carved capitals, ivory carvings and illuminated manuscripts, making it one of the most important repositories of Pyrenean Romanesque art in the world. Allow at least 90 minutes; most visitors wildly underestimate how much there is to see.
More of Jaca
Discover where to stay, what to do and the best deals for your trip.
Explore Jaca →
