León Cathedral

León Cathedral, the Cathedral of Santa María de Regla, is one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in Spain, and it is celebrated above all for its light. It stands in the old centre of León, in north-west Spain, in the Plaza de Regla, near the Plaza de Santa Ana, and it was built mostly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries on the site of Roman baths and an earlier Romanesque cathedral. Work began about 1254, and the architects looked to the new French Gothic style, of the cathedrals of Reims and Chartres, which they adapted with unusual lightness and daring. The result is a building often described as a house of glass, and it earned the nickname Pulchra Leonina, the beautiful lady of León.

The stained glass is the glory of the building. The cathedral holds about 1,800 square metres of medieval and later glass, which fills the tall windows of the nave, the transept and the apse with colour, in a series that spans the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries. The walls are almost replaced by glass, with slender stone supports between the windows, and the structure is held in balance by flying buttresses outside, so the interior is filled with shifting coloured light. The best moments are the morning, when the light enters from the east, and the late afternoon, when the western rose window glows. The glass is among the finest of its period in Europe, and it is the principal reason to go inside.

The west front is a magnificent Gothic façade with three portals richly carved with sculptures of the Last Judgement, the Virgin and saints, and a large rose window above. The cathedral’s towers are asymmetrical, and the building has been restored many times, including a major restoration in the nineteenth century after the structure suffered from age and from earlier alterations. Inside, other highlights include the carved choir stalls, the main altarpiece, medieval tombs and the cloister, a peaceful space with frescoes. The museum of the cathedral holds a rich collection of religious art, manuscripts and sculpture, among them a Mozarabic Bible of the tenth century.

León, in Castile and León, is also a stop on the Camino de Santiago, and pilgrims come to see the cathedral on their way to Santiago de Compostela. León’s old town around the cathedral is lively, with a quarter of bars known for tapas, the Barrio Húmedo, where small plates come free with each drink. Other sights within walking distance include the Basilica of San Isidoro, with its royal pantheon decorated with Romanesque frescoes, and the Casa Botines, a building by Antoni Gaudí on the Plaza de San Marcelo.

The cathedral is open daily with different hours for visitors, and the times vary by season, with reduced hours on Sundays and holidays, so check the official site. An adult ticket has been modest, with reductions and free entry for children. A visit takes about an hour and a half, and it is worthwhile to go back at a different time of day to see how the light changes. The city is easy to reach by train from Madrid.