What to see in Santiago de Compostela after you arrive, walked and measured

You have reached the cathedral, and you have an afternoon. The old town is smaller than it looks from the Obradoiro: every stop on this page is within 899 m of Km 0 on foot, measured along its streets. Pick how long you have and walk it.

How small the old town is

On foot, along the streets, the Praterías door is 150 m from Km 0, the Quintana 230 m and the market 465 m. The farthest stop on this page, Bonaval park, is 899 m away. The longest loop above, six hours with every stop, walks 4.2 km in all: about the last hour of your Camino.

The Obradoiro and its four buildings

The square takes its name from the stonemasons’ workshop, the obradoiro, that stood here while the cathedral was built. Each side is a different building from a different age. East is the cathedral’s baroque facade. West, facing it, is the Pazo de Raxoi, ordered by Archbishop Raxoi in 1766 and now the city hall. North is the Hostal dos Reis Católicos: the Catholic Monarchs visited in 1486 and built a royal hospital for pilgrims here from 1501 to 1511. It is a hotel today. South is the Colexio de San Xerome, the university’s rectorate, with a carved doorway older than the building around it.

Praterías, the Quintana and the Holy Door

Walk round the south side of the cathedral to the Praterías door, the only Romanesque facade the cathedral has left; it is also the free way in. Round the corner the Quintana opens out on two levels: the upper Quintana de Vivos and, down the steps, the Quintana de Mortos, the medieval cemetery that became a square around 1611. The Holy Door is in the cathedral wall above it. It is opened on the eve of a Holy Year: the next time on 31 December 2026, for 2027.

San Martiño Pinario

Across from the cathedral’s north door stands a Benedictine monastery founded in the 10th century and rebuilt from the 16th, in Renaissance, baroque and neoclassical stone. It covers 2.2 hectares. Today it holds the seminary and a museum of sacred art, among others.

The arcades of Rúa Nova and Rúa do Vilar

Three old streets run down from the cathedral side by side. Two of them, Rúa Nova and Rúa do Vilar, still walk under stone arcades. The third, Rúa do Franco, has none: in the 19th and early 20th centuries the city’s rules made a house remove its arcade when it was rebuilt, to widen the street. The old town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.

The market, and the Mass at San Agustín

The Mercado de Abastos is the city’s only public market: eight granite halls built from 1938 to 1945 to a design by Joaquín Vaquero Palacios, between the churches of San Agustín and San Fiz. Right beside it is San Agustín, where the Pilgrim’s Masses at 9:30, 12:00, and 19:30 are said since 16 October 2026, until further notice, while works go on at the cathedral’s high altar. The 7:30 Mass stays in the cathedral. Check the cathedral’s own notice before you plan your day around a Mass.

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The two views: the Alameda and Bonaval

Santiago has two views of itself. From the Paseo da Ferradura in the Alameda, a walk laid out from 1835, the cathedral rises over the old town: the picture on most postcards. From Bonaval, a park made in 1994 by the architect Álvaro Siza and the landscape architect Isabel Aguirre on the Dominicans’ old orchard and cemetery, you look back over the roofs from the north-east. The Museo do Pobo Galego is in the convent at its gate.

For the cathedral itself, the hug, the crypt and the Holy Door: what to do when you arrive at the cathedral.

If you hope to see the Botafumeiro swing: the dates it swings.

Still need your certificate? How to get the Compostela.

The walk down into town, the morning before: Monte do Gozo.

How we worked it out: the stops and the streets are OpenStreetMap, read on 24 October 2026, and every walk between two stops is the shortest way along those streets. Time on foot is at 4 km/h, an easy town pace. The minutes at each stop are our suggestion. The page gives no opening hours or prices, because they change.

Sources: map data © OpenStreetMap contributors; the Mass times and the Pilgrim’s Office from the cathedral of Santiago; the dates from the Wikipedia articles on the Obradoiro, Raxoi, the Hostal, San Xerome, the Quintana, San Martiño Pinario, the arcades, the market, the Ferradura and Bonaval.

Common questions

What is there to see in Santiago besides the cathedral?

Within a few minutes of it: the Obradoiro and its four buildings, the Praterías and the Quintana with the Holy Door, the monastery of San Martiño Pinario, the arcaded Rúa Nova, the Mercado de Abastos, and two views of the town, from the Alameda and from Bonaval park.

How long do you need to see Santiago?

An afternoon is enough for the old town. The loops on this page take 2, 4 or 6 hours with stops, and the longest walks 4.2 km.

Where is the Pilgrim’s Mass now?

In the church of San Agustín, beside the market, at 9:30, 12:00, and 19:30, since 16 October 2026 and until further notice. The 7:30 Mass stays in the cathedral.

Where is Km 0 in Santiago?

In the paving at the centre of the Praza do Obradoiro, in front of the cathedral. Every distance on this page is measured from it.

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