Prior to the current church, the site was occupied by the Great Mosque of the Albaicin (Arabic: مسجد الجامع البيازين, romanized: Masjid al-Jāmi' al-Bayyāzīn).

[5][4] Only its courtyard (sahn), with arcades of horseshoe arches, has been preserved today as part of the church.

[6] Its prayer hall, now disappeared, had a hypostyle form similar to the city's larger Great Mosque on the site of the current Cathedral.

Across the street from the mosque, there originally stood an Islamic primary school and a khan (urban caravanserai).

[7] In 1527, it was granted the status of a collegiate church by a papal bull of Clement VII, to facilitate the indoctrination of the local Moriscos.

[7] Reconstruction began in 1937 under the direction of architect Fernando Wilhelmi and continued in multiple phases afterward.

[7] The original architectural ambition for the church was most likely compromised by the crises that beset Granada during the time of its construction.

A series of other rooms, intended for the college of canons, stretch along the northeastern side of the building, near the main entrance portal.

[7] The chancel was most likely intended to be covered by a stone vault during the original construction, but due to the fiscal shortfalls it was replaced by a simpler octagonal wooden ceiling instead.

It reflects the ornate Granadan Plateresque style of Diego Siloe, as well as the greater architectural rigour of construction prior to the city's economic crisis later that century.