Santiago Cathedral works in 2026: what they actually affect

Updated 19 September 2026.

There is a notice that has been circulating online for years and still turns up on travel sites, tour operators' pages and forums: that the interior restoration of the Cathedral has moved the pilgrim's mass to the church of San Francisco at noon and to San Fiz de Solovio at 7:00 pm. That notice existed and it was correct. The problem is that it is from 2019, and there are pilgrims in 2026 still planning the end of their Camino around it. And on top of that there is now a new, real move that has nothing to do with that one: to San Agustín, from 16 October 2026.

What actually happened: the 2019-2021 restoration

Between 2019 and 2021 the Cathedral carried out the major restoration of its interior — the central nave, the transept and the ambulatory — and for much of that period the services were spread across other churches in the old town. That is where the San Francisco and San Fiz de Solovio times came from, along with the masses in several languages at the chapel of the Pilgrim Reception Office. That work finished: the masses went back to the High Altar and the botafumeiro to its place under the dome over the crossing.

What did not finish was the online afterlife of those notices. Because they were published on pages that were never updated or taken down, they keep being copied from one site to another with no visible date. If you come across one, find out when it was published before you trust it.

What is under restoration in 2026

In June 2026 the restoration of the clock towerbegan — the one that houses the Berenguela bell. It is a long job, running through 2027, covering the cleaning and consolidation of the stonework, the paintwork, the clock faces and a new timber structure to carry the bell. It is part-funded by Spain's 2% Cultural scheme. In parallel, work is under way on the roofs of several chapels.

On 30 September 2026 the Santiago paper El Correo Gallego published three figures the Cabildo does not have on its own site, and they matter if you are coming for the Holy Year. First: the Berenguela will still be scaffolded when the Holy Door opens, and for "a good part of the coming Holy Year", with completion expected in November 2027. Second: the tender budget for that job "exceeded 2.4 million euros". Third, and this one the paper attributes to the Cathedral itself: the roofs of the apse chapels may be finished before the end of 2026. On the cimborrio, the paper says the Cathedral "has not so far announced a specific date" for taking the scaffolding down, though the job "should not drag on into 2027". These are press figures, not the Cabildo's: we give them as that.

Both of those are exterior. The one you do notice inside is the cimborrio, the lantern tower crowning the crossing: the work is advancing on the inside — mostly recovering the polychromy — and the scaffolding has been lowered until it covers the mechanism the botafumeiro hangs from. That is why the censer is not flying at the moment.

And from October a third interior job is added, the one that does change the masses: the remodelling of the main chapel. On 17 September 2026 the Cathedral announced work on the wooden platform that carries the altar table, the ambo and the celebrant's chair, and that worship at the High Altar has to be suspended for it. From Friday 16 October 2026, until further notice, the pilgrim's masses at 9:30 am, noon and 7:30 pm are held in the church of San Agustín, on Praza de San Agustín next to the Mercado de Abastos, about a five-minute walk from the Cathedral; the 7:30 am one stays in the Cathedral, in the Communion chapel. The times don't change, only the place, and visiting the building carries on in its usual hours, 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. The notice gives no end date.

On the botafumeiro, the one caveat on this page: it is temporarily out of action. This was confirmed by the Cathedral to santiago.es, in writing, on 5 September 2026, and the reason is the only piece of work that does touch the crossing: the cimborrio restoration, whose scaffolding has been lowered and now covers the mechanism the censer hangs from. Nothing is broken, and there is no date for its return: the Chapter will not venture one, and the notice its liturgy page has carried since mid-September gives none either. We have gathered it all in the botafumeiro guide, including who to write to if your trip depends on seeing it.

Why this matters if you are finishing the Camino

A lot of people build their last day around the noon mass. If you arrive believing it is held at San Francisco, you will miss the real one: until 15 October 2026, the one at the High Altar; from the 16th, the one at San Agustín. And if from that date you turn up at the Cathedral at noon, you won't find it there either. The opposite happens too: some give up on the Cathedral altogether, assuming it is closed behind scaffolding, and it isn't: it is open to visit 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. What to do on the day you arrive, in order, is in the guide to arriving in Santiago.

Full opening hours and prices are in the Cathedral guide, the detail of each service in mass times at the Cathedral, and the censer's dates in the botafumeiro schedule.