The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar () is a Catholic church in the city of Zaragoza, Aragon. It is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Pillar, praised as "Mother of the Hispanic Peoples" by Pope John Paul II. It is reputed to be the first-ever church dedicated to Mary. This is the only reported apparition of Mary to have occurred before her reputed Assumption. while he was deep in prayer by the banks of the Ebro,
First chapel
About a year after the apparition, James is believed to have had a small chapel built in Mary's honour, the first church ever dedicated to her. After James returned to Jerusalem, he was executed by Herod Agrippa in about 44 AD, the first apostle to be martyred for his faith. Several of his disciples took his body and returned it for final burial in Spain.
Expansions
Romanesque church
thumb|Mudéjar church of the Pillar in 1647 by [[Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo.]]
Numerous churches have been built upon this site through the years. The tiny chapel built by Saint James later gave way to a basilica-like enclosure during Constantine I's time, subsequently being transformed into Romanesque, then Gothic then Mudéjar styles. The venerated shrines at Zaragoza date to the Christian Reconquest by King Alfonso I in 1118. A church in the Romanesque style was built under the pontificate of Pedro de Librana
Current church
thumb|Detail of the fresco of The Queen of Martyrs in the dome, painted by [[Francisco Goya]]
The present spacious church in Baroque style was begun in 1681 In 1725, the Cabildo of Zaragoza decided to change the aspect of the Holy Chapel and commissioned the architect Ventura Rodríguez, who transformed the building into its present dimensions of 130 meters long by 67 wide, with its eleven cupolas and four towers. The area most visited is the eastern part of the chapel, because this is where the Holy Chapel by Ventura Rodríguez (1754) is built, which houses the venerated image of the Virgin. Around the Holy Chapel are the vaults or domes painted with frescoes by Francisco Goya: The Queen of Martyrs and Adoration of the Name of God. By 1718, the church's vaults had been completed. However, it was not until 1872 that the final touches were put to these vaults, when the main dome and the final spire were finished.
Layout
The building, which can be seen from the nearby Ebro River, is a large rectangle with a nave and two aisles, with two other all-brick chapels, thus giving the whole a typically Aragonese touch. It is illuminated by large oculi, characteristic of the monuments of the region from the 17th century onwards. Twelve enormous pillars support the vaults of the nave and aisles; the whole is topped by domes, as are the chapels.