Spain · Self-guided walk
Santiago de Compostela in one walk 8 sights, 30 minutes
A self-guided walking tour of the Santiago de Compostela Old Town: 8 sights on one 1.9 km loop, about 30 minutes on foot, back where you started.
No two days to spare? Here is the short version: the big sights in one loop. I would take longer. I always take longer.
At a glance
The walk in numbers.
- Distance
- 1.9 km, a loop
- Time
- about 30 minutes of walking at 4 km/h, plus however long you stop
- Sights
- 8
- Start and finish
- Catedral de Santiago de Compostela
- Steps
- on Praza das Praterías, Cidade Vella, Rúa do Castro, Praza da Quintana de Mortos
- Cost
- free: no guide, no booking, no tip
The route
Map of the Santiago de Compostela walk: 8 stops, one loop.
The gold line is the walk. The numbers are the stops, in the order you reach them. The pale lines are every other street in the Old Town.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
The stops
8 sights in Santiago de Compostela, in walking order.
Each stop says how far the next one is and which streets take you there.
1. Catedral de Santiago de Compostela
the start
Go all the way round the outside before you go in. Each of the four sides opens onto a different open space, and no two of them look like the same thing was built twice. Whatever else is on this level, this is the main course, and I take my time over a main course.
Next: Colexio de Fonseca, 300 m, about 5 min, along Praza das Praterías, Rúa de Fonseca, Rúa do Franco, Travesa de Fonseca.
2. Colexio de Fonseca
about 5 minutes of walking from the start
The outside tells you nothing, and that is deliberate. Behind that face is a small green court with water in the centre of it, open to anyone who pushes on the gate, and hardly anybody does. The quietest few paces on this level.
Next: Praza do Obradoiro, 230 m, about 3 min, along Cidade Vella, Avenida de Raxoi.
3. Praza do Obradoiro
about 8 minutes of walking from the start
The big open one. Nowhere else in this Old Town gives you enough distance to stand back and look, which is why almost everyone who gets here stops right there and puts their bag on the floor. Come at it out of a narrow lane and the space lands on you like a full plate.
Next: Parador Hostal dos Reis Católicos, 140 m, about 2 min, along Praza do Obradoiro, Rúa de San Francisco.
4. Parador Hostal dos Reis Católicos
about 10 minutes of walking from the start
Four courtyards are folded away inside this one and you would never guess from outside. The frontage is long, grey and almost flat, and most walk past it because the thing behind them is louder. Give it a minute. It has been doing the same job for five centuries.
Next: Mosteiro e Igrexa de San Martiño Piñario e Seminario Maior, 240 m, about 4 min, along Travesa das Dúas Portas, Rúa da Moeda Vella.
5. Mosteiro e Igrexa de San Martiño Piñario e Seminario Maior
about 14 minutes of walking from the start
You cannot get far enough back to take all of it in, and I suspect that was the plan. The way in sits below the level of the paving outside, because the town kept rising and the entrance did not. Come at it from the low side and look up the whole time.
Next: Mercado de Abastos de Santiago, 390 m, about 6 min, along Rúa da Troia, Rúa de San Bieito.
6. Mercado de Abastos de Santiago
about 20 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon–Sat 08:00–15:00, Sun closed
Long parallel halls of granite, laid out like a row of little chapels, and inside them the loudest and best smelling half hour on this level. Go in the morning. Go hungry. I cannot eat one thing in there and I go anyway.
Next: Praza da Universidade, 200 m, about 3 min.
7. Praza da Universidade
about 23 minutes of walking from the start
A long straight face with columns across it, steps below that, and students on the steps at every hour a student is awake. The one open space here that looks drawn rather than grown. Everything else in this Old Town happened by accident and then stayed.
Next: Praza da Quintana de Mortos, 270 m, about 4 min, along Rúa do Castro, Rúa da Conga.
8. Praza da Quintana de Mortos
about 27 minutes of walking from the start
Broad steps run right across it, and people use them the way other cities use benches. It is the plainest big space in town and the one that fills up after dark. Sit on an upper row with something to eat. That is what steps are for.
Back to the start: Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, 80 m, about 1 min.
Every stop counts from the street; the hours are for going inside. Opening hours from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors. Check before you go.
After the walk
The rest of Santiago de Compostela.
This loop is 8 sights. The Old Town is 135 streets, and I have opinions about all of them. Every street of the Santiago de Compostela Old Town, with what to eat and where.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone: every street is a line of dots you collect by walking it, and the phone stays in your pocket. Your first city is free.