Santiago de Compostela

Tradition puts the tomb of St James beneath it, and pilgrims still climb behind the altar to embrace his statue from the back. The giant botafumeiro censer is swung by eight men on a rope, not at every mass but on set feast days or at masses that ask for it.

The west porch of the cathedral, carved by Master Mateo in the late twelfth century, holds close to two hundred saints and musicians. Since its restoration, visitors are let in by time slot in limited numbers to protect the paint, so buy tickets ahead.

The square before the cathedral front, where pilgrims drop their packs and lie on the stones to gaze up at the towers. On its north side the royal pilgrims' hospital founded by the Catholic Monarchs in 1499 now runs as a state parador hotel.

A guided walk across the stepped granite slabs of the cathedral roof. You pass the stone cross where pilgrims of old are said to have burned their clothes, with the square and old town roofs below. Rain makes the stone slippery and can halt the tour.

Several long stone halls run in parallel, full of clams, crabs and whelks from the Galician coast. A few bars inside will cook the seafood you have just bought on the spot. It shuts on Sundays.

A hill park west of the old town whose horseshoe walk gives the side-on view of the cathedral towers that defines the city's postcards. At the entrance stands a statue of two sisters who strolled here in bright clothes at the same hour each day.

A Benedictine monastery north of the cathedral and nearly its equal in size. The church door sits below the square, so you walk down a flight of steps to get in, a rare layout. The carved choir stalls are worth a look; it now houses a seminary and museum.

A former Dominican convent, now the Galician folk museum. At its heart three stairways wind around one core and cross without meeting, each reaching a different floor. The poet Rosalia de Castro is buried in the church.

A hill some five kilometres out to the east, called the Mount of Joy because pilgrims on the French Way first see the cathedral towers from it. A statue of two pilgrims points at the spires. On foot, the cathedral is a bit more than an hour further.

A cape once taken for the edge of the known land, where many pilgrims walk on after finishing. A zero-kilometre marker stands by the lighthouse, and at sunset people sit on the rocks as the sun sinks into the Atlantic. Buses from Santiago need about two hours.

A square on the cathedral's east side, split into a lower level, once a graveyard, and an upper one up the steps. The Holy Door, opened only in holy years, faces it. At night many look for the pilgrim-like shadow a pillar and lamp throw below the clock tower.

A twelfth-century Romanesque church by the Sar, southeast of the old town; soft ground tipped its inner columns visibly outward, so huge buttresses went on in the 1700s. A cloister wing keeps original capitals. Twenty minutes' walk from the cathedral.

A narrow stone street heading south off Obradoiro, named for the Franks, as pilgrims from beyond the Pyrenees were once called. Seafood bars crowd both sides; evenings fill with diners picking crabs and clams from windows. Parallel Rua da Raina feels alike.

Peter Eisenman's complex on Mount Gaias, east of town, its stone-clad roofs rippling like folded earth. It went up far smaller than planned, some buildings never built. The plaza by the library stays quiet; paths up top look back to the cathedral towers.

A small square before the cathedral's south front, named for silversmiths who once worked here. That front holds the richest Romanesque carving of all four sides, and on a landing partway down the steps four horses spout water. Silver jewellers still ring it.

In A Coruna, some thirty-odd minutes by rail, a Roman lighthouse raised in the second century still shines, earning World Heritage status. Its outer stone shell is eighteenth-century work; a basement shows the Roman footings. Atlantic winds blast the top.

A river town some twenty kilometres south. Under the altar of its Santiago church lies the stone post said to have moored the boat bearing St James's body. Poet Rosalia de Castro's last home is a museum, and Sunday mornings bring a big riverside market.