The Roof of The Cathedral de Santiago

I was able to get a ticket for a tour of the cathedral roof. After a brief tour through the conservation museum (being made of stone, the delicate features erode over time or break). We make the climb to the roof. The roof has been completely restored from 2017-2021 one of the latest revisions. The facade seen from the Plaza do Obradoiro a vast Baroque-Roccoco masterpiece, is an encasement of the smaller, older cathedral within! Which, in turn, overlies the Tomb of James the Greater. After a hike up several stories of stairs winding up the North bell tower, we reach the amazing roof. Most of the granite shingles are 2.5 inch thick by 1 meter long by about 1/3 meter wide creating an enormous durable roof encasement to protect the old cathedral below. We proceed across the entire roof viewing unique perspectives of the towers. Several towers were dismantled and conserved in the museum. We then proceeded up the north tower of the carracas. The large X shaped devices are hand cranked only during the Holy Week in place of the bells.Read more