Almudena Cathedral

Madrid was the capital of the most powerful Catholic empire in history for over four centuries, and for almost all of that time, it didn't have a cathedral. When Philip II moved the capital from Toledo to Madrid in 1561, the archbishopric — and therefore the cathedral — stayed behind in Toledo. Spain spent the next three hundred years building cathedrals in colonial cities from Manila to Mexico City while its own capital made do with parish churches.

Construction finally began on April 4, 1883, when Alfonso XII laid the first stone. Architect Francisco de Cubas designed it in a neo-Gothic style to rival the great medieval cathedrals of Europe. Then the money ran out. Then the Spanish Civil War happened. Then more money ran out. The project dragged on for 110 years through multiple architects, shifting styles, and national catastrophes. It wasn't consecrated until June 15, 1993, when Pope John Paul II flew in to do the honors — making it the first cathedral he consecrated outside of Rome.

The result is architecturally... complicated. The exterior is neoclassical, designed to match the Royal Palace directly across the street. The interior is neo-Gothic. The crypt is neo-Romanesque. The pop-art-colored ceiling paintings by Kiko Arguello, added in 2004, look like nothing in any other European cathedral. Critics have called the building everything from "confused" to "audacious," but that mix of styles is honestly a pretty accurate reflection of Madrid itself.

On May 22, 2004, the cathedral hosted the wedding of Crown Prince Felipe (now King Felipe VI) to Letizia Ortiz, watched by an estimated 1.5 billion viewers worldwide — finally giving the building a moment worthy of a four-century wait.