Inner triforium of the New Cathedral

From a unique location on high the visitor can move along the upper balustrade of the New Cathedral to contemplate its interior, the spacious Gothic church with slender columns and vaults that resolve the structure by means of transepts, stellar vault ribs and counter-ribs, and curved ribs.

The route continues to the north terrace along the spiral stairway of Mallorca.

This inner platform, which runs along the whole of the perimeter of the New Cathedral, is at the same level as the beginning of the vaults. It is an advanced version of the original ambulatories and triforiums and takes the form of a route along the upper part of the church. As well as taking us to the upper parts of the church, this route also allows us to observe the various building solutions of the Cathedral. Never before was it possible to observe at close hand the vaults that resolve the structure by means of transverse ribs, stellar vault ribs and counter-ribs, and curved ribs, connecting the chromatically ornamented keystones with applications of gold leaf. This is a structural system characteristic of the medieval model, which was to be maintained in Spanish architecture until well into the 16th century.

Large windows are opened in the inner walls of the New Cathedral with Renaissance designs crowned with a round arch and closed by a splendid series of stained glass, which flood the inner space of the church with light. A long series of medallions representing patriarchs, prophets, and apostles surround the walls of the church.

From the centre of the balustrade we can appreciate the choir of the Churrigueras with its magnificent walnut stalls flanked by the Renaissance and baroque organs, and at the chevet the chancel with the image of the Virgen de la Asunción escorted by angels, the urns of the relics of San Juan de Sahagún and Santo Tomás de Villanueva, and the fine vault of this chancel.

The route continues along the spiral stairway of Mallorca that starts in the Chapel de San Clemente on the north flank of the New Cathedral. This magnificent staircase, the work of Juan Gil de Hontañón during the first third of the 16th century, is characterised by its lack of a central axis and by the adoption of a helicoidal shape with a banister sculpted in the wall of stone.