Cathedral of Santa María de León and Its Cloister

León Cathedral is the cathedral of Gothic light: the walls almost disappear behind the stained glass, which tints the nave with colour. It was begun around 1255, and according to the church itself in León Gothic architecture gave light an exceptional prominence. The ticket includes the cloister; the cathedral museum is paid separately or with a combined ticket.

The stained glass

The cathedral brings together about 1,765 square metres of glass in 737 windows, from the 13th to the 20th centuries; the tall ones measure about 12 metres. They are read in levels. Below, the earthly world, with plant motifs such as the oak and the vine and allegories of virtues and vices. In the triforium, 37 windows of about 3.5 metres with royal, noble, ecclesiastical and territorial coats of arms. Above, prophets, kings, saints and apostles, with the Tree of Jesse. There are three rose windows 8 metres in diameter: the west one, with the Virgin and Child among twelve musician angels, from the late 13th century; the south one, with the Coronation of the Virgin, largely remade in the 19th, and the north one, with Christ enthroned among Old Testament kings, from the 13th and the darkest of the three. On the north side of the high windows look for the Hunt window, a hunting scene from 1264 to 1279. The colours change with the hour, the season and the strength of the sun, and the west rose window receives the last light of the afternoon.

The cloister

It is square, about 30 metres a side, begun in the late 13th century and finished in the first third of the 14th; in 1540 Juan de Badajoz the Younger rebuilt the roofs and pillars, which is why it mixes Gothic and Renaissance. Around 1459 to 1461 Nicolás Francés and other masters painted the story of the Redemption in the four galleries. Look at the tombs, unusual in a cloister: that of the precentor Munio Ponzardi, the first Gothic one; that of the dean Martín Fernández, carved between 1255 and 1260, and that of the canon Juan Martínez de Grajal, which shows him both alive and as a corpse.

Opening hours and tickets

Monday to Saturday it is open from 9:30 to 13:30 and from 16:00 to 19:00. For Sunday the sources do not agree: the cathedral's website gives the same hours as on weekdays, and the Tourist Office sheet, from 9:30 to 11:30 and from 15:00 to 19:00, because there are Masses at midday; confirm before you go. The ticket office closes half an hour earlier, and services may change the hours. It costs €8; €7 for over-65s, students, pilgrims with a credential, large families and groups of more than 5, and €2 for schoolchildren. It is free for accompanied under-12s, for people with a recognised disability and for everyone on Tuesday from 17:30 to 19:00. The combined ticket with the cathedral museum, which runs from prehistory to the 20th century and opens with Juan de Badajoz's Plateresque staircase, costs €12. Phone: 987 875 770.

What to combine

Opposite the cathedral, on the Plaza de Regla, is the Tourist Office. A few minutes away are the Casa Botines and the Barrio Húmedo, and following the wall you reach San Isidoro. With children, go in the morning with sun and play at looking for animals and coats of arms in the windows.