Experience the best of León

León began as a Roman legionary camp, whose Latin name, Legio, survives in the city's name, and became the capital of the Kingdom of León in the Middle Ages. Its Gothic cathedral, with walls of stained glass dating from the thirteenth century onward, is famous for the coloured light that fills its interior. Nearby, the Basilica of San Isidoro has a Romanesque royal pantheon whose twelfth-century ceiling paintings earned it the name of the Sistine Chapel of Romanesque art.

Casa Botines, a neo-Gothic building by Antoni Gaudí, stands in the centre opposite the Renaissance Palacio de los Guzmanes. The Hostal de San Marcos, a pilgrim hospital with an ornate Renaissance façade, stands by the river on the Camino de Santiago. Astorga, with Gaudí's Episcopal Palace, lies to the west, the Picos de Europa rise to the north, and the Valporquero caves lie in the mountains above the city.

In the lanes of the Barrio Húmedo, bars give a small free tapa with each drink, a Leonese custom. Cecina, cured smoked beef, morcilla, blood sausage, and Valdeón blue cheese are regional products, with red wine from the Prieto Picudo grape. At about 800 metres, León has cold winters and warm, dry summers, and its Holy Week processions and late June fiestas draw big crowds.