Tap a sentence to see it in Spanish, and tap the book to study it. The speaker plays one sentence, the round button plays a paragraph, and the player at the bottom reads the whole story. Press T to show or hide every translation.
León is a city in the north - west of Spain , on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela . In its old centre stands the Gothic cathedral of Santa María de Regla . From the square , it looks like a solid building of stone , with two towers and a large round window between them . Walk inside , and the stone almost disappears . Above you , the walls are mostly glass : tall windows , small round openings and three great rose windows . The regional tourist office of Castilla y León counts 737 stained - glass windows , with a total surface of 1,765 square metres . The story behind it is a story of building . Work began around 1205 , stopped because of problems with the foundations , and started again in 1255 . The Gothic builders reduced the stone in the walls to the minimum , which left large spaces for glass . The main structure was finished by 1302 . The windows tell stories as well as giving light . Low down , in darker and cooler colours , they show life on earth : plants , farm work , medieval trades , Castilian kings and noble coats of arms . Higher up , in reds , deep blues and golds , they show saints , prophets and apostles . Heaven , in other words , sits close to the roof . The glass was not made all at once . The oldest pieces date from the 1200s , and new glass was added over the following centuries . In 1857 , falling stones showed that the building was in danger . A long restoration followed , and the cathedral reopened in 1901 . Visit on a sunny day , and give yourself time . As the sun moves , the light inside changes from hour to hour . Stand in the middle of the nave and look up . Here the stone is only the frame , and the glass is the wall . 
