---
title: "Santiago news: what changes for your visit"
description: "What is actually changing in Santiago right now: the Cathedral works of 2026 and the grounded botafumeiro. Background pieces kept up to date, not wire copy."
url: https://santiago.es/en/news
locale: en
---

# Santiago news: what changes for your visit

Current affairs

We don't do wire copy. We write background pieces on the things that genuinely change a visit to Santiago, and we keep them updated for as long as they still matter.

![Prensa antigua imprimiendo periódicos ante la Catedral, grabado dorado](https://santiago.es/img/illus/prensa.jpg)

[© santiago.es · Ilustración](https://santiago.es)

By [Cesar Rodriguez](https://santiago.es/en/author) · updated 31 August 2026

A city that receives [half a million pilgrims a year](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/pilgrim-statistics) and has its [cathedral](https://santiago.es/en/what-to-see/cathedral) under restoration is not a static destination. The piece below covers what most affects anyone travelling right now: what is closed or scaffolded, what is open regardless, and where an out-of-date notice from 2019 is still misleading people. It carries its own update date, and we revise it when the situation changes, not only when we publish it.

Two other stories we cover in Spanish are already part of our English guides rather than separate news pieces: the countdown to the next Holy Year is in [the Xacobeo 2027 guide](https://santiago.es/en/xacobeo-2027), and the record 530,987 pilgrims of 2025 — with the 2026 figures as they come in — is in [the pilgrim statistics page](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/pilgrim-statistics).

In English

**[Santiago Cathedral works in 2026: what they actually affect](https://santiago.es/en/news/cathedral-works-2026)** — In force now · 30 July 2026 — No, the pilgrim's masses have not been moved: that notice is from 2019. What is being restored now, why the botafumeiro is grounded and how to check before you travel. — Read the piece