Basilica of Santa Maria

The Santa Maria Basilica, located in the municipality of Castelló d'Empúries in Girona, Catalonia, Spain, has for centuries been regarded as the Empordà Cathedral, although papal authorities have never granted it this rank. The building is the second largest in the Costa Brava, after the Girona Cathedral, and is big enough to justify cathedral status. It is a Gothic building begun in the thirteenth century that replaced a primitive Romanesque church from the tenth century. A few vestiges of this building remain, such as the first floors of the bell tower and the grant baptismal. It was completed in the fifteenth century, when the marble facade and the alabaster altarpiece of the main altar were finished. It contains a museum known as El Tresor, which contains a large collection of religious jewelry.