807 Best Sights in Spain

Dating to the 14th century, this once-crumbling cathedral has been undergoing renovations for more than two decades—but it's open to visitors, which is its unique selling point. Guided tours begin in the bowels of the building, where the transition from Romanesque to Gothic styles is evident in the square pillars topped with cylindrical ones. The tour culminates in a visit to the bell tower followed by a hyperrealistic light show that gives visitors a sense of the cathedral's formerly colorful painted exterior through the ages. A prominent and active supporter of the project is British novelist Ken Follett, whose novel World Without End is about the construction of the cathedral. The renovation is slated to be completed once and for all within the next three years.  Call ahead to book an English-language group tour, or use the free audio guide on the standard tours, which depart every 30 minutes or so.

This 12th-century cathedral is the finest in the Pyrenees, and the sunlight casting the rich reds and blues of Santa Maria's southeastern rose window into the deep gloom of the transept is a moving sight. The 13th-century cloister is famous for the individually hewn, often whimsical capitals on its 50 columns, crafted by the same Roussillon school of masons who carved the doorway on the church of Santa Maria in Ripoll. Don't miss the haunting 11th-century chapel of Sant Miquel or the Diocesan Museum, which has a collection of striking medieval murals from various Pyrenean churches and a colorfully illuminated 10th-century Mozarabic manuscript of the monk Beatus de Liébana's commentary on the apocalypse.  Be aware of the limited visiting hours: Monday through Friday from 10–1:30 and 4–6, and Saturdays from 10–1 only (changes seasonally).

It's a new era for the Catedral: In 2020, the unsightly—and seemingly permanent—scaffolding came down to reveal one of Spain's most impressive (and painstakingly laborious) restorations. What was once a discolored, greenish, and weather-worn facade is now radiant, golden, and spotless—a befittingly grand finale to arduous pilgrimages. Although the facade is baroque, the interior holds one of the finest Romanesque sculptures in the world: the Pórtico de la Gloria, completed in 1188 by Maestro Mateo. It is the cathedral's original entrance, its three arches carved with figures from the Apocalypse, the Last Judgment, and purgatory. Below Jesus is a serene St. James, poised on a carved column. Look carefully and you can see five smooth grooves, formed by the millions of pilgrims who have placed their hands here over the centuries. On the back of the pillar, devotees lean forward to touch foreheads in the hope that his genius be shared.

St. James presides over the high altar in a bejeweled cloak, which pilgrims embrace upon arriving at the cathedral. The stairs behind the sculpture are the cathedral's focal point, surrounded by dazzling baroque decoration, sculpture, and drapery. The crypt beneath the altar, which houses the purported remains of James and his disciples St. Theodore and St. Athenasius, is generally closed to the public. A pilgrims' Mass is held daily at noon.

Segovia's 16th-century cathedral was built to replace an earlier one destroyed during the revolt of the Comuneros against Carlos V. It's one of the country's last great examples of the Gothic style. The designs were drawn up by the leading late-Gothicist Juan Gil de Hontañón and executed by his son Rodrigo, in whose work you can see a transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance style. The interior, illuminated by 16th-century Flemish windows, is light and uncluttered (save for the wooden neoclassical choir). Across from the entrance, on the southern transept, is a door opening into the late-Gothic cloister, the work of architect Juan Guas. Off the cloister, a small museum of religious art, installed partly in the first-floor chapter house, has a white-and-gold 17th-century ceiling, a late example of artesonado (a Mudejar technique using intricately joined wooden slats).

Valencia's impressive 13th- to 15th-century cathedral is the heart of the old city. The building has three portals—Romanesque, Gothic, and rococo. Inside, Renaissance and baroque marble were removed to restore the original Gothic style, as is now the trend in Spanish churches. The Capilla del Santo Cáliz (Chapel of the Holy Chalice) displays a purple agate vessel purported to be the Holy Grail (Christ's cup at the Last Supper) and thought to have been brought to Spain in the 4th century. Behind the altar is the left arm of St. Vincent, martyred in Valencia in 304.

Stars of the cathedral museum are Goya's two famous paintings of St. Francis de Borja, Duke of Gandia. Left of the entrance is the octagonal tower El Miguelete, whose 207 steps you can climb (entry, €2): from the top, the roofs of the old town create a kaleidoscope of orange and brown terra-cotta, with the sea in the background.

One of the most impressive structures in all of Spain, this is a must-see on any visit to the city. The elaborate structure sits on the site of what was once Toledo's great mosque (of which only a column and the cistern remain). It owes its impressive Mozarabic chapel, with an elongated dome crowning the west facade, to El Greco's only son. The rest of the facade is mainly early 15th century. Immediately to your right is a beautifully carved plateresque doorway by Covarrubias, marking the entrance to the Treasury, which houses a small crucifixion scene by the Italian painter Cimabue and an extraordinarily intricate late-15th-century monstrance by Juan del Arfe. The ceiling is an excellent example of Mudejar (11th- to 16th-century Moorish-influenced) workmanship. From here, walk around to the ambulatory. In addition to Italianate frescoes by Juan de Borgoña and an exemplary baroque illusionism by Narciso Tomé known as the Transparente, you’ll find several El Grecos, including one version of El Espolio (Christ Being Stripped of His Raiment), the first recorded instance of the painter in Spain.

This basilica on the banks of the Ebro, often shortened to La Pilarica or El Pilar, is Zaragoza's symbol and pride. An immense baroque structure with 11 vivid tile-topped cupolas, La Pilarica is home to the Virgen del Pilar, patron saint of peninsular Spain and the entire Hispanic world. The fiestas honoring this most Spanish of saints, held in mid-October, are ushered in with processions, street concerts, bullfights, and traditional jota dancing. Among the basilica's treasures are two frescoes by Goya—one of them, El Coreto de la Vírgen, painted when he was young, and the other, Regina Martirum, after his studies in Italy. The bombs displayed to the right of the altar of La Pilarica chapel fell through the roof of the church in 1936 and miraculously failed to explode. Behind La Pilarica's altar is the tiny opening where the devout line up to kiss the rough marble pillar where La Pilarica is said to have been discovered.

Murcia's cathedral is a masterpiece of eclectic architecture. Begun in the 14th century, the cathedral received its magnificent facade—considered one of Spain's fullest expressions of the churrigueresque style—as late as 1737. The 19th-century English traveler Richard Ford described it as "rising in compartments, like a drawn-out telescope." The 15th century brought the Gothic Door of the Apostles and, inside, the splendid chapel of Los Vélez, with a beautiful, star-shaped stone vault. Carvings by the 18th-century Murcian sculptor Francisco Salzillo were added later. The museum, housed in the 14th-century cloisters, includes several Gothic paintings, Roman remains, and a walkway over the underground archaeological ruins. The bell tower, built between 1521 and 1792, rises 313 feet and offers magnificent views of the city from the top.

Occupying a 13th-century Cistercian monastery in the old city’s bohemian Carmen quarter, this arts center showcases contemporary art juxtaposed against a historical setting. Rotating exhibitions featuring paintings, sculpture, and video installations take place in marvelously dramatic spaces, including a 13th-century monks’ dormitory and an ancient Gothic cloister.

Inaugurated in 2017, this futuristic museum and performance center designed by architect Renzo Piano was the biggest cultural opening in northern Spain in recent memory. It houses contemporary artwork by international artists. Worth a visit for the eye-popping architecture and views alone, the building overlooks the harbor and is surrounded by the Jardines de Pereda. There is a café on-site, as well as two viewing decks accessible free of charge.

In Hernani, a 10-minute drive south of San Sebastián (close to both Martín Berasategui's restaurant in nearby Lasarte and the cider houses of the Astigarraga neighborhood, like Sidrería Petritegi), the Eduardo Chillida Sculpture Garden and Museum, in a 16th-century farmhouse, got a face-lift after years of neglect and finally reopened in 2019. It is a treat for anyone interested in contemporary art. The indoor-outdoor restaurant on the premises punches above its weight.

Travel back a few centuries in Cáceres's Ciudad Monumental (aka "casco antiguo" or "ciudad vieja"), one of the best-preserved medieval quarters in Europe. It's so convincingly ancient that Game of Thrones used it as a filming location. There isn't a single modern building to detract from its aura, a testament to the fact that Cáceres became a backwater plagued by war after Spain's Golden Age. It's virtually deserted in winter and occasionally dusted with a light coating of snow—a fairy-tale sight. Most of the city's main monuments are located here, but of Cáceres's approximately 100,000 residents, fewer than 400 reside within this tiny enclave.

Once a fortress designed to consolidate Madrid's military occupation of Barcelona, the Ciutadella is now the city's main downtown park. The clearing dates from shortly after the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, when Felipe V demolished some 1,000 houses in what was then the Barri de la Ribera to build a fortress and barracks for his soldiers and a glacis (open space) between rebellious Barcelona and his artillery positions. The fortress walls were pulled down in 1868 and replaced by gardens laid out by Josep Fontseré. In 1888 the park was the site of the Universal Exposition that put Barcelona on the map as a truly European city; today it is home to the Castell dels Tres Dragons, built by architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner as the café and restaurant for the exposition (the only building to survive that project, now a botanical research center), the Catalan parliament, and the city zoo.

Designed mainly by native son Santiago Calatrava, this sprawling futuristic complex is the home of Valencia's Museu de les Ciències (Science Museum), Hemisfèric (Hemispheric Planetarium), Oceanogràfic (Oceanographic Park), and Palau de les Arts (Palace of the Arts, an opera house and cultural center). With resplendent buildings resembling crustaceans, the Ciutat appeals to architecture buffs and kids alike.

The Science Museum has soaring platforms filled with lasers, holograms, simulators, hands-on experiments, and a swell "zero gravity" exhibition on space exploration. The eye-shaped planetarium projects 3-D virtual voyages on its huge IMAX screen. At Oceanogràfic (the work of architect Felix Candela), home to one of the largest aquariums in Europe, you can take a submarine ride through a coastal marine habitat.

Founded in 1419, this convent hides a 16th-century cloister that is the most fantastically decorated in Salamanca, if not all of Spain. The capitals of its two superimposed Salmantine arcades are crowded with a baffling profusion of grotesques that can absorb you for hours. Don't forget to look down: the interlocking diamond pattern on the ground floor of the cloister is decorated with the knobby vertebrae of goats and sheep. It's an eerie yet perfect accompaniment to all the grinning disfigured heads sprouting from the capitals looming above you. The museum has a fascinating exhibit on Spain's little-known slavery industry.  Seek out the traditional sweets made by the nuns.

The convent's monks, among the most enlightened teachers at the university in medieval times, introduced Christopher Columbus to Isabel (hence his statue in the nearby Plaza de Colón, back toward Calle de San Pablo). The complex was designed by one of the monks who lived here, Juan de Álava. The west facade, a thrilling plateresque masterwork in which sculpted figures and ornamentation are piled up to a height of more than 98 feet, is a gathering spot for tired tourists and picnicking locals, but the crown jewel of the structure is a glowing golden sandstone cloister with Gothic arcading punctuated by tall spindly columns adorned with classical motifs. The church, unified and uncluttered but also dark and severe, allows the one note of color provided by the ornate and gilded high altar of 1692. An awe-inspiring baroque masterpiece by José Churriguera, it deserves five minutes of just sitting and staring. 

These mysterious prehistoric megalithic burial chambers, just outside Antequera, were built some 4,000 years ago out of massive slabs of stone weighing more than 100 tons each. The best-preserved dolmen is La Menga. Declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2016, the Dolmens offer an interesting insight into the area's first inhabitants and their burial customs, well explained at the visitor center. Regular events include Equinox and Solstice meetings, and the MengaStones Festival, June–Sept. Details are available at the tourist office. Note that gates to the dolmens close 30 minutes before closing time.

One of Europe's most important swaths of unspoiled wilderness, these wetlands spread out along the west side of the Guadalquivir estuary. The site was named for Doña Ana, wife of a 16th-century duke, who, prone to bouts of depression, one day crossed the river and wandered into the wetlands, never to be seen alive again. The 188,000-acre park sits on the migratory route from Africa to Europe and is the winter home and breeding ground for as many as 150 rare species of birds. Habitats range from beaches and shifting sand dunes to marshes, dense brushwood, and sandy hillsides of pine and cork oak. Two of Europe's most endangered species, the imperial eagle and the lynx, make their homes here, and kestrels, kites, buzzards, egrets, storks, and spoonbills breed among the cork oaks.

Girona is especially noted for its 12th-century Jewish Quarter, El Call, which branches off Carrer de la Força, south of the Plaça Catedral. The quarter is a network of lanes that crisscross above one another, and houses built atop each other in disorderly fashion along narrow stone medieval streets. The earliest presence of Jews in Girona is uncertain, but the first historical mention dates from 982. This once-prosperous community—one of the most flourishing in Europe during the Middle Ages—was, at its height, a leading center of Kabbalistic learning.

Named for the arrastre (dragging) of animals in and out of the slaughterhouse that once stood here and, specifically, the rastro (blood trail) left behind, this site explodes into a rollicking flea market every Sunday 9–3 with dozens and dozens of street vendors with truly bizarre bric-a-brac ranging from costume earrings to mailed postcards and thrown-out love letters. There are also more formal shops, where it's easy to turn up treasures such as old iron grillwork, a marble tabletop, or a gilt picture frame. The shops (not the vendors) are open during the week, allowing for quieter and more serious bargaining. Even so, people-watching on Sunday is the best part.

This 11th-century hermitage is in ruins, but its location—on a peninsula jutting out into a bend 100 meters above the Duratón River—is extraordinary. You'll need a car to get there, about 15 minutes' drive west of Sepúlveda. After parking, walk along the marked path—the surrounding area is a natural park and a protected nesting ground for rare vultures. Try to go at sunset; when the sun sets the monastery and river glow. Inside the monastery, there's a small chapel and plaque describing the life of San Frutos, the patron saint of Segovia. An ancient pilgrimage route stretches 77 km (48 miles) from the monastery to Segovia's cathedral, and pilgrims still walk it each year. As an add-on to the trip, you can rent kayaks from NaturalTur to paddle the river ( www.naturaltur.com;  92/152–1727).

The Flysch is the crown jewel of the Basque Coast Geopark, a 13-km (8-mile) stretch of coastline distinguished by spectacular cliffs and rock formations. Taking its name from the German word for "slippery"—a reference to the slipping of tectonic plates that thrust the horizontal rock layers into vertical panels—the Flysch contains innumerable layers of sedimentary rock displaying some 20 million years of geological history. One such layer is black and devoid of fossils; it was identified by scientists as marking the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. 

On an inland mountain ridge overlooking the sea, this pretty village has spectacular views and an old quarter of narrow, cobbled streets and dazzling white houses decorated with pots of geraniums. It was the site of one of the last battles between the Christians and the Moors, whose story is told through mosaics throughout the village. Frigiliana is a short drive from the highway to the village; if you don't have a car, you can take a bus here from Nerja, which is 8 km (5 miles) away.

The masterpieces by native Barcelona artist Joan Miró (1893–1983) on display at this museum include paintings, sculpture, and textile works from all periods of his life. They coexist with temporary exhibitions of 20th and 21st century artists, and, in the newer Espai 13 space, cutting-edge contemporary art.

The airy white building, with panoramic views north over Barcelona, was designed by the artist's close friend and collaborator Josep Lluís Sert and opened in 1975. Extensions were added by Sert's pupil Jaume Freixa in 1988 and 2000. Miró's playful and colorful style, filled with Mediterranean light and humor, seems a perfect match for the surroundings. Various patios, as well as the roof terrace, are home to notable Miró sculptures, including the bronze Sun, Moon and one Star with a dramatic backdrop of the city. The artist rests in the cemetery on Montjuïc's southern slopes.

Barcelona's opera house has long been considered one of the most beautiful in Europe, a rival to La Scala in Milan. First built in 1848, this cherished cultural landmark was torched in 1861, later bombed by anarchists in 1893, and once again gutted by an accidental fire in early 1994. During that most recent fire, Barcelona's soprano Montserrat Caballé stood on La Rambla in tears as her beloved venue was consumed. Five years later, a restored Liceu, equipped for modern productions, opened anew. Some of the Liceu's most spectacular halls and rooms, including the glittering foyer known as the Saló dels Miralls (Room of Mirrors), were untouched by the fire of 1994, as were those of Spain's oldest social club, El Círculo del Liceu—established in 1847 and restored to its pristine original condition after the fire. 

Sometimes called "Los Jesuitas" for the religious order that founded it, the Iglesia de San Ildefonso is named for Toledo's patron saint, a 7th-century bishop. It was consecrated in 1718 after the baroque stone facade with twin Corinthian columns took 150 years to build. Its semispherical dome is one of the icons of Toledo's skyline. This impressive building's tower affords some of the best views over Toledo.

Not to be confused with the marzipan shop bearing the same name, this chapel topped with a Mudejar tower was built specially to house El Greco's most masterful painting, The Burial of Count Orgaz. Using vivid colors and splashes of light, it portrays the benefactor of the church being buried with the posthumous assistance of St. Augustine and St. Stephen, who have appeared at the funeral to thank the count for his donations to religious institutions named after the two saints. Though the count's burial took place in the 14th century, El Greco painted the onlookers in contemporary 16th-century costumes and included people he knew; the boy in the foreground is El Greco's son, and the sixth figure on the left is said to be the artist himself. Santo Tomé is Toledo's most visited church besides the cathedral, so to avoid crowds, plan to visit as soon as the building opens.

The Cíes Islands, 35 km (21 miles) west of Vigo, are among Spain's best-kept secrets. They form a pristine nature preserve that's one of the last unspoiled refuges on the Spanish coast. Starting on weekends in May and then daily June–late September, Naviera Mar de Ons ( 986/225272,   www.mardeons.com) runs about eight boats from Vigo's harbor (subject to weather conditions), returning later in the day, for the €21 round-trip fare (tickets must be booked in advance on the website). The 45-minute ride brings you to white-sand beaches surrounded by turquoise waters brimming with marine life; there's also great birding. The only way to get around is your own two feet: it takes about an hour to cross the main island. If you want to stay overnight, there's a designated camping area. The tourist office has up-to-date information on timetables and crossings.

It is mandatory for travelers to the Cíes Islands to first obtain authorization from the Xunta de Galicia online portal (autorizacionillasatlanticas.xunta.gal/illasr).

Once one of Roman Iberia's most important cities in the 2nd century, with a population of more than 10,000, Itálica today is a monument of Roman ruins. Founded by Scipio Africanus in 205 BC as a home for veteran soldiers, Itálica gave the Roman world two great emperors: Trajan (AD 52–117) and Hadrian (AD 76–138). You can find traces of city streets, cisterns, and the floor plans of several villas, some with mosaic floors, though all the best mosaics and statues have been removed to Seville's Museo Arqueológico. Itálica was abandoned and plundered as a quarry by the Visigoths, who preferred Seville. It fell into decay around AD 700. The remains include the huge elliptical amphitheater, which held 40,000 spectators; a Roman theater; and Roman baths. The finale for season 7 of Game of Thrones was filmed here in 2018. The small visitor center offers information on daily life in the city.