Catedral de León — Attraction in León

The Cathedral of Santa Maria de Regla de Leão is a Catholic church, episcopal see of the Diocese of Leão, dedicated to the advocacy of Our Lady. It was the first property classified as a national monument in Spain, by the Royal Order of August 28, 1844. Started in 1205, it is one of the great works of Gothic architecture, of French influence. Known as Pulchra Leonina, which means "beautiful Lioness", it is found on the Camino de Santiago. The building takes the "dematerialization" of Gothic art to the extreme, that is, the reduction of walls to their minimum expression to be replaced by around 1,800 m² of colored stained glass, which constitutes one of the largest sets of medieval stained glass in the world. In 1844, the poor condition of the building led the state to rush to repair it. The cathedral was declared a national monument, the first in Spain. In 1849, the Jesuit P. Ibáñez designed and installed a new rose window for the south gable. Shortly after, the chapter feared a fatal outcome, when in 1857 stones began to fall again from the transept and the central nave, spreading fear of the total collapse of the cathedral, which spread throughout Spain and Europe. The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando intervened and the government entrusted Matías Laviña with the direction of the works in 1859. To stop the deterioration of the building while it was being reconstructed, Madrazo designed an admirable system of covering the high vaults with trusses, which involved very complex carpentry work and served to sustain all the tensions of the temple while the reconstruction of the entire south facade. In addition, the arrangement of the vaults was modified and the south facade was redone from the arcade, taking inspiration from the north facade. In general, he planned the entire building as we find it today. The objective was to get back Pulchra Leonina, that is, the cathedral in its original state of pure Gothic, eliminating everything that had altered that purity. restoration, albeit to a lesser extent. In 1911, Manuel Cárdenas demolished the Porta do Bispo, a civil building that connected the cathedral with the episcopal palace. In 1930, Juan Crisóstomo Torbado finished the outer fence, which had been started in 1794, closing off the entire atrium. The same architect later carried out the restoration of the cloister. In 1963, Luis Menéndez-Pidal y Álvarez remade the perforated rose of the triangular finial on the south gable, imitating the one on the north gable. In 1963, the architect Luis Menéndez Pidal remade the perforated rose of the triangular finish on the south gable, imitating the northern one. On May 27, 1966, a fire caused by lightning destroyed the entire roof of the tall naves, but the consequences were not serious due to the intervention of the master builder Andrés Seoane, thanks to which the roof could be repaired. In the first decades of the 21st century, important works have been carried out to reinforce the structures and to treat and clean the stones with the most modern techniques. Since 2009, the restoration and consolidation of the stained glass has also taken place, namely with the placement of protective glass to close the openings, isothermal glass to protect the stained glass from atmospheric effects and external protective metal meshes. Funding for these works has been provided by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the Junta de Castilla y León, through the cultural project "Cathedral de León, the...

The Cathedral is beautiful but some aspects ruined my visit: -entrance is 7 euros, which is too much for what it offers. Also no peregrino discount like in Burgos. they have a QR code based audioguide, but only 5 stops. And the best: no WiFi provided. Unacceptable after paying 7 euros. No toilet. Again, after 7 euros I'd expect restroom. The staff who selling tickets playing a disgusting game with foreigners just for fun. Spoke with other pilgrims and they said it also happened to them. So here it goes: based on their website and the boards, they have a combined ticket for church and museum. When you ask that, she replied in Spanish with a very broken English (again, unacceptable in tourism) that she doesn't sell those tickets here, go to the information point. And waived bye. Instructions were not clear, but I found some info box at the museum. Her reply: "we don't sell tickets here, don't know what you're talking about". So I went back to the tickets box and asked the woman why did she send me away. She was acting all innocent and her English miraculously improved and she could then informing me that here I only buy the church ticket and later I will be able to buy the museum ticket, sold separately. All with a smile acting all innocent. I don't know why the Cathedral híres such staff but it definitely created a bitter tone to my visit. They should respect the pilgrims more, without us they...

I visited in mid May of 2023, while on the Camino de Santiago. And it was one of the most memorable stops of my whole Camino. I walked in and just started crying--the stained glass is so beautiful. They kicked us out for siesta, and after a stop at my hotel room and getting dinner, I paid to get in again when it re-opened in the late afternoon. And then I went again the next morning, but for mass in the side chapel before walking on.

The audio tour is great but bring headphones if you can! I saw a lot of people awkwardly holding their phone near their head to try and hear it.

I do wish I'd brought small binoculars, the upper windows are hard to see in detail. And I wished I had more explanations of which windows were made when, and who was portrayed in them--I did find a copy of a book about this in English once I got home, but it's an older book and the photos of the windows aren't good. (I think they were taken before some of the windows were cleaned/restored.)

I could've spent an entire day just lying on a pew and looking up into that light. You can almost feel the centuries and centuries of prayers people have made there.

After I got home I took a class in making stained glass. Haven't made any gothic rose windows yet but...