León

León is the capital of the province of León, Castilla y León, one of the major cities of northern Spain and a key stop on the Camino Frances. The city has origins as a Roman legionary fortress, the name León derived from the Latin legio, and the outline of the Roman camp is still traceable in the street grid of the old town.

The Cathedral of Santa María de Regla, begun in the thirteenth century, is one of the Gothic masterpieces of Spain, celebrated above all for its extraordinary stained glass windows covering approximately 1,800 square metres, giving the interior an extraordinary luminosity unique among Spanish Gothic cathedrals. The Basílica de San Isidoro, a Romanesque royal pantheon and church of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, houses the tombs of the kings of León and Castile and the famous painted Panteon Real ceiling.

For pilgrims on the Camino Frances, León is the last great city before Galicia and offers full services and cultural depth.