Consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1993, Almudena Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madrid. Plans to build a cathedral in Madrid dedicated to the Virgin of Almudena were discussed as early as the 16th century but even though Spain built more than 40 cities in the new world during that century, the cost of expanding and keeping the Empire came first and the construction of Madrid's cathedral was postponed. Because making the cathedral the largest that the world had ever seen was a priority, the construction of Almudena only began in 1879.
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