Burgos Audio Tours

Burgos stands at 856 meters on the Castilian meseta, and the climate makes no apologies for it. The winters are biting, the summers are bright and dry, and the locals eat morcilla, the blood sausage made with rice and onions that is the city's culinary signature, in the way that keeps you warm from the inside. Founded in 884 as a defensive outpost, Burgos was the capital of Castile for centuries and the birthplace of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, the medieval military commander history remembered as El Cid. His tomb, and that of his wife Jimena, lies inside the cathedral.

The Catedral de Santa Maria de Burgos is one of the finest Gothic buildings in Spain, begun in 1221 and UNESCO-listed since 1984.

The spires are delicate lace in stone, and the interior contains the Chapel of the Constable, an octagonal space of almost bewildering ornamentation. The Cid's famous wooden chest, used according to legend to trick moneylenders into funding his campaigns, sits in the cloister museum. The cathedral dominates the skyline from every direction, but the city itself rewards walking beyond it.