Burgos Cathedral
— — a city that lives beneath two spires.
Not only on a wall.
“The Gothic cathedral of Burgos rises in the old quarter of the Castilian city, above the Arlanzón river. Begun in 1221 under King Ferdinand III, finished in stages over four centuries, the western towers crowned by Juan de Colonia's openwork stone spires in the 1450s. The tomb of El Cid lies under the crossing. The walk from the Plaza del Rey San Fernando holds the spires through every step.
Burgos Cathedral, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Burgos Cathedral stands at the centre of the historic capital of Castile, in the Castile and León region of northern Spain, roughly 240 kilometres north of Madrid. The city of Burgos sits above the Arlanzón river on the meseta, near the route of the Camino Francés to Santiago de Compostela. The cathedral was begun in 1221 under King Ferdinand III and Bishop Mauricio, finished in stages through the 15th and 16th centuries. UNESCO inscribed it in 1984 as the only Spanish cathedral protected on its own architectural merit alone.
The walls and tracery are dressed in pale Hontoria limestone from quarries south-west of the city. The crossing tower (the cimborrio) and the openwork spires above the western towers, completed by Juan de Colonia in 1458 and continued by his son Simón, are the building's most recognised silhouette. Inside, the Constable's Chapel, finished in 1494 by Simón de Colonia for the Constables of Castile, holds an octagonal lantern and the tombs of its patrons. The tomb of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid, lies under the crossing of the nave.
The cathedral opens for tourism on a separate schedule from worship; standard visitor hours run morning into early evening, with shorter winter timings. An entry fee covers the main church, the cloister, and the museum, with concession rates for pilgrims on the Camino. Photography without flash is generally permitted outside services. The cathedral lies within the walled old quarter, a short walk from the Plaza Mayor and the riverside paseo. Burgos is reached by AVE high-speed train from Madrid in around 100 minutes.