LAUSR

The identification of the rock types used in the construction of the Cathedral of Santa María, a gothic monument in Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain, has enabled the reconstruction of the entire building process, from the extraction of stone from the quarry to the current restoration. Furthermore, the substrate of the building is used as a reference to narrate the “full history” of the Spanish city of VitoriaGasteiz since the Campanian, 80 million years ago. In this multidisciplinary study, the geotic aspects of low heritage value are combined with other biotic and anthropic features, and these constituents facilitate the dissemination of information about the cathedral and associated geotourism, in supporting the cultural and nature tourism. This simple methodology (geological history of the substrate followed by building process) can be easily applied to tourist areas that have poor geoheritage.