Spain Guide
Galicia
The cathedral squares
You could easily spend several hours exploring the squares around the cathedral. The Praza do Obradoiro, in front of the main facade, is the most formal and impressive of Santiago's public spaces. Its northern side is dominated by the elegant Renaissance Hostal dos Reis Católicos. Fernando and Isabel, in gratitude for their conquest of Granada, built this superb hostel for the poor and sick. Now a parador, it's very much the place to stay if you can afford it. Even if you're not staying here, stroll in for a look at its four lovely courtyards, the chapel with magnificent Gothic stone carvings or the vaulted crypt-bar.
In the equally large but somehow more intimate Praza da Quintana, a flight of broad steps joins the back of the cathedral to the high walls of the Convento de San Paio, and serves around the clock as an impromptu bench for students and backpackers. The "Porta Santa" doorway here is only opened during Holy Years, in which the feast of Santiago falls on a Sunday. To the south, the Praza das Praterías, the Silversmiths' Square, centres on an ornate fountain of four horses with webbed feet, and features the seventy-metre-high Berenguela, or clock tower. On its west side, the extraordinarily narrow Casa del Cabildo was built in 1758 to fill the remaining gap and ornamentally complete the square – you'd never know to look at it, but it's a mere facade, with nothing behind it.
North of the cathedral, the grand Baroque frontage of the Benedictine monastery of San Martiño Pinario towers over the Praza da Inmaculada. At 20,000 square metres, this ranks among the largest religious buildings in Spain.