Santa Ana Cathedral

Look up from the nave and the columns turn into palm trees. The Gothic piers rise without capitals, and the vaulting ribs spread from the top of each shaft the way fronds open from a trunk. The building took shape over centuries: the four western bays are sixteenth-century work, while the crossing, transepts and sanctuary belong to Diego Nicolás Eduardo's eighteenth-century rebuilding, pointed in feeling inside and classical on the outside.

The second reason is the roof. A lift carries you up to a terrace, and a spiral staircase climbs on to the top of a tower. From there the view runs over the port on one side and down onto Plaza de Santa Ana and the Town Hall on the other, the square guarded by statues of Canarian dogs. The circuit ends in the Museum of Sacred Art next door.

• Allow around an hour and a half for the cathedral, the roof and the museum together.
• A QR code at the start opens an audio guide on your phone. Bring headphones, or read the text on screen.
• The lift reaches the roof terrace; the last stretch to the top of the tower is a spiral staircase.
• Toilets and a gift shop are inside.

The cathedral stands on Plaza de Santa Ana in Vegueta, and the last stretch is on foot through the streets of the old quarter. Two bus stops, Reyes Católicos 9 and Plaza de las Ranas, sit about 150 m away in a straight line. By car, the car park at the Mercado de Vegueta is about 310 m away, with a second car park about 340 m out. Whichever way you come, you arrive in the open square with the main façade on one side and the Town Hall on the other.

Best: a weekday, saving the roof terrace for late afternoon. Avoid: Sunday, when mass is on and the interior can only be seen from the door. The main façade looks west over Plaza de Santa Ana, so the late sun falls on the front and across the square you look down on from the roof.

Santa Ana is a working cathedral, the seat of the Diocese of Canarias, and worship takes precedence over visits. During Sunday mass the interior is given over to the service and visitors see it only from the door. At other times, keep your voice low in the nave and the side chapels, where people come to pray.