Audiotour Cathedral

 The Holy Church of El Salvador and Santa Maria is the main temple of the Diocese of Orihuela, Alicante, where the Bishop has his headquarters or Episcopal Chair.

 It is the head-church of all the other parish churches and diocese communities, house and home of the diocesan community which prays presided by its’ pastor. It is the centre of the liturgical life and reflects the history, culture and life of our diocese.

 Its construction started at the end of the 13th century on top of Visigoth and Hispano-Arabic remais. In 1281, Alfonso X The Wise, determined that the church of Salvador should be the greatest of the town, having supremacy over the other two: Santa Justa and Rufina and Santiago Apostol, awarding it the superior Rank of Archpriestal.

 Although, in a first instance Orihuela belonged to Castilla, it passed permanently to the Crown of Aragon in 1304 after the Arbitration Treaty of Torrellas, however, at a spiritual level it continued to depend the Bishopric of Cartagena.

 This situation, where the civil and ecclesiastical borders did not coincide, and the inconveniencies that all this originated, procoked the need to segregate its territory from the diocese of Cartagena.

 The first achievement to get the rank of Cathedral was its promotion in 1413 by papal bull from Benedicto XIII to the Rank of Deanery, a necessary category for a church to be promoted to the Rank of Cathedral.

 In 1510, pope Julio II decreed the promotion to the Rank of Cathedral the Collegiate del Salvador, the creation of the Bishopric of Orihuela and the canonical unión with Cartagena under the authority of a unique Bishop, “sub uno pastore”, according to the recommendations from Fernando The Catholic. That measure was leater annulled by Leon X and Clemente VII by petition of King Carlos V.

 It will not be until 1564 when Pope Pio IV did definitely separate Orihuela from the diocese of Cartagena, creating his own bishopric upon request of the King Felipe II, fulfilling the agreement settied in the Cortes de Mozón in 1563.