Architectural description
Catedral de la Encarnación
Siloé conceived the façade as a triumphal arch flanked by two twin towers 81 meters high plus a 40m high chapitel. These towering towers were never built, today we can only see the unfinished left tower that reaches 57 meters high.
Alonso Cano continued the triumphant dimension of the cathedral and conceived the Baroque façade as an exterior projection of the interior work.
It articulated the façade into three streets divided into two levels separated by an entablement; the upper level was finished with three half-pointed arches, being the central one with the highest height. The triumphal arch image is emphasized with the receding and deep chiaroscuro of the buttresses. The effect it produces is that of a static facade and not moving, as is characteristic of the Baroque style, a remarkable aspect that will influence later facades.
