Cathedral Renovations
The Cathedral in Santiago continues to undergo renovations in preparation for Holy Year 2021. No worries though, pilgrims can still enter the cathedral, visit the grave site and crypt of St. James and hug his statue. The only difference is that there are no masses being celebrated in the church itself.
Pilgrim mass is offered now at the church of San Francisco, right by the Cathedral, everyday at noon.
There are other pilgrim masses held around Santiago where special blessings are given to travelers, and those can be found easily as well.
When entering Santiago this past summer and into August there is noticeable scaffolding on the outside.So far the inside of the cathedral hasn’t seen much activity but when speaking to the official Pilgrim office, one of the volunteers said that probably starting in mid-September the interior of the cathedral will begin to be renovated.
No one is quite sure if this will limit entry into the cathedral at certain times or restrict the visit to the Portico de Gloria. Even the official pilgrim website for the Camino (https://oficinadelperegrino.com) doesn’t have any information about the repairs being done. We don't envision that there will be significant impact to pilgrim access but we don't know yet.
We’ll update our Facebook and website once we have more information.
Buen Camino!