The 13th-century Gothic cathedral that crowns the old town has been undergoing a famous, ingenious restoration for the last three decades. Rather than close, the building has been kept open for guided tours through the works — visitors don hard hats and walk the scaffolding, learning how the foundations failed and how engineers and historians have stabilised them.
It is one of the most engaging cathedral visits in Spain precisely because it dispenses with the usual reverent silence: this is a building under repair, and the tour explains every crack and buttress. Book tickets in advance through the Catedral Vitoria website. Tours run in Spanish, Basque, and English.