• Get your Camino Frances Guidebook here.
  • For 2024 Pilgrims: €50,- donation = 1 year with no ads on the forum + 90% off any 2024 Guide. More here.
    (Discount code sent to you by Private Message after your donation)
  • ⚠️ Emergency contact in Spain - Dial 112 and AlertCops app. More on this here.
This is a mobile optimized page that loads fast, if you want to load the real page, click this text.

Can you tell me where this door is in León?

Bert45

Veteran Member
Time of past OR future Camino
2003, 2014, 2016, 2016, 2018, 2019
I'm pretty sure the attached photo was taken next to or very near to a roundabout in León between the Basilica of San Isidoro and the Hotel San Marcos. You can see that it is No. 20, but nothing else. The photo was taken in 2014. I have used Streetview
without success. Thanks.

 
Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
Can you identify your shots before and after this handsome door ?

In Leon the Casa Botines, the warehouse/factory designed by Gaudi c.1892 is now a museum. Included in its encyclopedic interests is the architectural history of Leon. You might email the library this photo and ask the address.

Good luck in your research.
 
Last edited:
Update. Try "walking" the streets/lanes about the plaza mayor
 
Last edited:
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
The one before was the last at the Basilica at 8:34. The door was at 8:50. the next photo was the Convento de San Marcos at 8:58 (Next to the Parador). I'll try the museum, thanks for that info.
 
The first edition came out in 2003 and has become the go-to-guide for many pilgrims over the years. It is shipping with a Pilgrim Passport (Credential) from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
Nothing to offer, except - very nice door! Thanks for posting.
 
I have seen that door, I am SURE of it. I was in León in September and stayed in a hotel in the Plaza Santo Domingo for a few days and spent a lot of time walking around. Have you taken all the streets in the vicinity and then plugged in number 20 of that street to see if it pops up? I did it for a few but no luck, but a more methodical approach might yield results. It is quite the monumental door!

You could also try emailing the tourist office. Their email address is oficinadeturismodeleon@jcyl.es
 
Down bag (90/10 duvet) of 700 fills with 180 g (6.34 ounces) of filling. Mummy-shaped structure, ideal when you are looking for lightness with great heating performance.

€149,-
I don't know my exact route from the Basilica to the convento. I probably followed yellow arrows, but they're hard to see on Streetview. And perhaps I didn't. There are just too many streets to try, I feel. I asked the tourist office years ago and I didn't get a reply, it might be worth trying again. I haven't had a reply from the museo yet. I'm 99% sure about the roundabout, but there's that 1% of doubt. I've streetviewed all the roundabouts between the Basilica and the Convento, and even some not on a direct route.
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
ORTH86,

Wow! Your perserverance surely paid off!!
Within that door lies a story because the new building is so ordinary and that reused door hidden by the red car in the screenshot is great.

I wonder from what earlier structure the door was kept.
 
Last edited:
I am so glad and relieved that @OTH86 found the door and the building . Like @mspath I've wondered about the earlier structure. The door belongs to a casa señorial. The address is Gran Vía de San Marcos, 20. The current building dates from 1947. And this is what the whole building looks like when seen from a satellite:

 
Guides that will let you complete the journey your way.
Kathar1na,
Wow! Thank you for your perseverance also. How did you track down that text? It would be great to find more exterior pictures of the original casa señorial.
 
How did you track down that text?
Honestly, I don't know. I usually enter search terms into Google that look promising to me and then I look at the search results and take it from there to create further search terms. I would not have found anything if it had not been for @OTH86's post.

The building is known as Edificio Ceremonias or Casa de Ceremonias. At first I thought that this indicates some interesting history but then I learnt that the name is, as apparently not unusual, the mote of an individual or of a family who was the proprietor or promotor of the building. Mote must be something like a nickname or moniker.

I don't think that there had been a prominent older building in its place. This area of Leon was only urbanised at the beginning of the 20th century, see map below where I marked the location of the current building. It is actually located past the plaza Inmaculada and not between Domingo and Inmaculada which is why I could not find it at first in Google Streetview. Corner of Gran Via and de la Vega is correct. In this map, San Marco is at the bottom left corner. The map dates from around 1904. Before the 1900s, the whole area south and west of the future pl. Inmaculada was empty, ie rural land.

 
Last edited:
A selection of Camino Jewellery
That's definitely it! thank you so much! Can you explain, in simple terms, how you found it? How long did it take you?
Now I'm really baffled! Is that a simple typing error or something else? Several minutes of streetviewing along Gran Via de San Marcos and Calle Lope de Vega failed to find the door or scenes as in you screenshot. However, just on the off-chance I searched for GVdSM 20, and Google Maps took me a short way up Calle ROA DE LA VEGA. Is this (Vega) a coincidence I asked myself, and how can the marker for GVdSM be on Calle RdlV? Never mind, let's have a look at that corner, and there it is, MY DOOR! So how did OTH86 manage to find it but not find it? She said it was between Plaza de Santo Domingo and Plaza de la Inmaculada, and marked the corner on the map, but it's not there. Has the door been moved?
Still, All's Well that Ends Well!
So my 1% of doubt was right! [It's not on a roundabout.]
 
Last edited:
Bert45,
I did not find this building but Orth86 did and then Kathar1na located more info. After reading Kathar1na's latest legal text I realize that this 1947 building is the original structure.

Isn't all this just great! What a perfect example of sharing on the forum.

PS. We three women are very perseverant.
 
Last edited:
@Bert45, thanks for the "puzzle"! The Camino at work, perhaps?

The door actually is on a "corner" at an intersection - not necessarily an easy place to find. And now I DO see the correct location that you and @Kathar1na mention... on C. Roa de la Vega, not C. Lope de Vega that I gave - apologies!

I just did a couple of streetviews on Google, saw an address in the upper left corner of the map, and "noodled" around the area east of the Basilica, zooming in on the building numbers for reference, and suddenly there it was. Maybe 15 - 20 minutes - but an hour just now trying to figure out my confusion between C. Roa de la Vega and C. Lope de Vega!!

@mspath , thanks for the "urgings" to find more about this building! Fascinating!
Buen Camino, all!
 
Last edited:
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.

Most read last week in this forum