Astorga Cathedral

Astorga Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

Astorga Cathedral stands in the small walled town of Astorga in the province of Leon, at the meeting point of the French Way of the Camino de Santiago and the Via de la Plata, and pilgrims pass it every day. The cathedral is ticketed, and a combined ticket includes the cathedral museum and, often, the Episcopal Palace designed by Antoni Gaudi next door, which houses the Museum of the Ways. Buy the combined ticket: seeing a Gothic cathedral and a Gaudi building side by side is the particular pleasure of Astorga.

Day trips from Leon, about forty-five minutes away, usually combine Astorga with Leon's own cathedral, or with the villages of the Maragateria region. The town is also known for its chocolate museum, its mantecadas biscuits and the local cocido maragato, a stew eaten in reverse order. Everything is within a short walk inside the Roman walls. Pilgrims with a credential get a reduced price on the combined ticket.

Visiting Astorga Cathedral: what to see

The cathedral was begun in 1471 on the site of earlier Romanesque churches and took about three centuries to complete, which explains its mixture of styles: the body of the church is late Gothic, with tall vaults, while the richly carved main facade and one of the towers are baroque, built in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in a warm pinkish stone. The towers are of different colours, one older and darker, the other newer and paler.

Inside, the most important work is the Renaissance altarpiece of the main chapel, carved by Gaspar Becerra in the 1560s, a masterpiece of Spanish sculpture with scenes and figures in gilded and painted wood. The choir stalls are finely carved. The cathedral museum holds silverwork, paintings and the treasury, including a reliquary box attributed to the tenth century. Next door, Gaudi's palace, with its turrets and white granite, looks like a castle from a fairy tale. The cloister, rebuilt in the eighteenth century, connects the cathedral with the museum rooms.

Astorga Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Astorga is quiet for most of the year, busy with pilgrims walking the Camino in spring, summer and early autumn, especially in July and August. The cathedral and museum close at lunchtime and keep shorter hours in winter, when the town can be cold. Late summer brings the festival of Saint Martha, and the Roman festival in July recreates the town's ancient past.

Holy Week is marked with processions. Mornings are best for visiting, before the afternoon heat in summer and while the light is good on the facade. Allow an hour for the cathedral and museum, and another hour for the Gaudi palace, and walk along the Roman walls for the view over the Leon plain. The pilgrim hostels fill in the afternoon, and the square is liveliest when walkers arrive.