What you can see on the Burgos webcam
The camera is on a restaurant terrace on the Plaza del Rey San Fernando, with café umbrellas in the foreground, and looks across the pale stone square to the south side of the cathedral: the rose window of the transept, a broad flight of steps, a long wall lettered with the cathedral's name and, behind, a forest of spires and pinnacles. Tall houses with glazed balconies close the view on the right. It shows the light on the stone and the visitors and pilgrims crossing the square, and comes as a time-lapse of the day.
Burgos Cathedral from the Plaza del Rey San Fernando
This camera sits on the terrace of the Asador Puerta Real, a restaurant on the Plaza del Rey San Fernando, and the big white umbrellas in the foreground are its own. Beyond them the square opens out, paved in pale stone, to the south side of the cathedral: on the left the transept front with its rose window and balustrades, in the middle a flight of steps and a long wall lettered «Catedral de Santa María», and above it all the cathedral's spires and pinnacles. Tall houses with glazed balconies close the view on the right.
It is a good guide to the day in the city centre: the light on the stone, whether the umbrellas are open and how many visitors and pilgrims are crossing the square. Windy plays it as a time-lapse of the day.
The cathedral of El Cid
Building began in 1221 in the French Gothic style, and over the next three centuries the cathedral gained the openwork spires of its west front, added by Juan de Colonia in the 15th century, the Constable's Chapel and the great lantern over the crossing. Beneath that lantern lie El Cid, the 11th-century Castilian warrior, and his wife Jimena, whose remains were brought here in 1921. The cathedral was declared a World Heritage Site in 1984. Inside, look out for the Papamoscas, a figure high in the nave that opens its mouth as it strikes the hours.
When to watch Burgos
Burgos is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. At about 860 m (2,820 ft) on the plateau of Castile, it has cold winters with frequent frost and some snow, and warm summer days with cool evenings. Around midday the sun falls full on the south side of the cathedral, the side the camera faces, and the stone turns bright white; in the evening the floodlights take over.
Around Burgos
The Museum of Human Evolution, opened in 2010 beside the river, displays finds from the Sierra de Atapuerca, a World Heritage archaeological site about 12 miles (19 km) east of the city where some of the oldest human remains in Europe have been found. The royal convent of Las Huelgas and the Carthusian monastery of Miraflores are on the edge of town.
Getting to Burgos
Burgos lies on the main route from the ports of northern Spain to Madrid. Bilbao, with its airport and its ferry from Portsmouth, is about 105 miles (167 km) away by road, and Santander about 115 miles (183 km). Madrid is about 150 miles (243 km) to the south.
