The Co-Cathedral of San Julián stands on the Plaza de Amboage in the centre of the Magdalena district, a sober late-eighteenth-century church that doubles as the architectural anchor of the whole planned city. It was built between 1766 and 1772 to a design by Julián Sánchez Bort, the engineer who also worked on the nearby naval arsenal, and the building shares the same restrained, almost military Neoclassicism — granite façade, twin square bell towers, very little ornament. The interior is a single high nave with side chapels and a barrel vault, lit by a small dome over the crossing.
The church became a co-cathedral of the diocese of Mondoñedo-Ferrol in 1959, sharing the seat with the older cathedral in Mondoñedo. The most interesting object inside is the Cristo dos Navegantes, a much-revered processional crucifix that the navy and the city's brotherhoods carry through the streets during Holy Week — Ferrol's Semana Santa is one of the more atmospheric in Galicia. The cathedral is also the symbolic starting point of the Camino Inglés to Santiago, and you will see pilgrims collecting their first credencial stamps here.