Spain Guide
Galicia
The Catedral
Telephone: 981 552 985
Opening time: Cathedral daily: summer 9am–8pm; winter 9am–7pm; treasury and cloisters summer Mon– Sat 10am–2pm & 4–8pm, Sun 10am–2pm; winter Mon– Sat 10am–1.30pm & 4–6.30pm; roof daily except Mon, hourly departures 10am–1pm & 4–7pm
Price: Cathedral free; treasury and cloisters €5; roof €10
All roads in Santiago lead to the Catedral. You first appreciate its sheer grandeur upon venturing into the vast Praza do Obradoiro. Directly ahead stands a fantastic Baroque pyramid of granite, flanked by immense bell towers and everywhere adorned with statues of St James in his pilgrim guise with staff, broad hat and scallop-shell badge. No other work of Spanish Baroque can compare with this Obradoiro facade.
The main body of the cathedral is Romanesque, rebuilt after a devastating raid by the Muslim vizier of Córdoba in 977. The building's highlight is the Pórtico de Gloria, the original west front, which now stands inside, immediately behind the Obradoiro. Completed in 1188, this represented both the culmination of all Romanesque sculpture and a precursor of the new Gothic realism.
The spiritual climax of each pilgrimage, comes when pilgrims climb steps behind the High Altar – a riot of eighteenth-century Churrigueresque – embrace the Most Sacred Image of Santiago, and kiss his bejewelled cape. The saint's bones are kept in a crypt beneath the altar. The elaborate pulley system in front of the altar moves the immense "Botafumeiro" (incense burner); operated by eight priests, it's swung in a vast thirty-metre ceiling-to-ceiling arc across the transept.
To visit the Treasury, Cloisters and Buchería (Archeological Museum), right of the cathedral, and the beautiful Crypt of the Portico, beneath the main entry staircase, you need to buy a ticket. A guided tour up to Las Cubiertas, the cathedral roof, is an experience not to be missed; the climb up leads through the upper floors of the cathedral interior, while the roof itself, which consists of shallow granite steps, offers superb views over the city, as well as the cathedral's own towers and embellishments. Every way you turn, it's crawling with pagodas, pawns, domes, obelisks, battlements, scallop shells and cornucopias. Call ahead to arrange an English-language tour.