Paso a paso

Joaquín Alegre Alonso

Translation: Mar Balboa Carbón

León, both the city and its territory, is a child of Rome. Proclaimed the capital of the kingdom, its mediaeval inhabitants painted the ‘Sistine chapel of the Romanesque style’, crowned an emperor, founded the first ‘democratic parliament’ and erected the dream of the Gothic style. Buildings of Plateresque delicacy and the Baroque exuberance came later. And not long ago, the modernism of Gaudí and the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture.
Its Roman sister, Astorga, managed the gold mines in the region, of which Las Médulas is its most dramatic and beautiful example. But there is so much more to discover…