* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
This photograph in Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia, captured at dusk this summer, shows the Girona cathedral, with light from inside showing through the windows and the bell tower.
The cathedral is not only one of the most emblematic monumental buildings in Girona, but in summer it is a refuge from the heat.
In fact, this year, in the last wave of rising temperatures, underground chambers were enabled for the first time to keep the heat out, a service that was basically used by the most curious tourists.
The Cathedral of Santa María de Girona is located at the highest point of the city. And it stands out because it has the widest Gothic nave in the world, with a total width of 22.98 meters.
The Charlemagne tower, the cloister and the sacristy are all that remain of the first Romanesque construction, from the mid-11th century, while its cloister is one of the most important in Catalonia thanks to its sculptural richness.
The church was built between the 14th and 18th centuries, is large and is dedicated to Santa María. The first stone of the cathedral's façade was laid in 1606, but it was not finished until well into the 20th century. The dilation in time determined a structure between baroque and classicist.
