Stop #20:
Just when you think you’ve seen enough churches to last you a lifetime, you stumble upon a town called Burgos, with one of the craziest churches you have ever seen. It was stunning!
This small city has some of Spain’s most outstanding Medieval architecture. This is also the city of El Cid, the part-historical, part-mythical hero of the Christian Reconquest of Spain.
The big highlight, you guessed it, is the city’s cathedral. History tells us that local burghers lynched their civil governor in 1869 for trying to take an inventory of all of the artwork in the Cathedral because the parishoners were afraid there was a plot to steal the artwork. Construction began in 1221 and was complete by the middle of the 14th century. The tomb of El Cid is in the hexagonal Condestable Chapel. along with his wife, Ximena.
We also hiked to the top of the city near the Caballeros castle (which we didn’t have time to visit) to get panoramic city views. The black poplars on the Espolon also look interesting this time of year.
Thanks to Fodor’s Travel Guides, Trip Advisor, and Wikipedia for the great lessons that helped me to plan and summarize this trip.
