In the gable of the north arm of the transept, at the level of Calle Fernán González but at a level several metres higher than the floor of the church, is the doorway of the Coronería, or Puerta de los Apóstoles, which from the inside of the cathedral is connected to the nave by means of the Golden Staircase by Diego de Siloé, the author of the parapets of the railing being the master Hilario, with a design also by Diego de Siloé.4 Between 1250 and 1257, artisans associated with Master Henry, also known as the Master of the Coronera, created this masterpiece. Although the style is unmistakably Gothic, several of the sculptural themes harken back to Romanesque art. Also, in 1786, the Gothic mullioned arch showing God the Father was replaced by a Baroque style circular arch with huge voussoirs that encircled the doorway. The chapter closed this door not long after the renovations began, as the constant influx of residents carrying groceries and cooking utensils down to the city's lower levels was becoming a nuisance. The religious procession of pilgrims who were making their way to Santiago de Compostela was also halted, as they had already entered the cathedral through the Coronera.
In the plaza in front of the Coronera.
A sequence of blind pointed and trilobate pointed arches are erected on paired columns with vegetal capitals on the lower plinth, and they extend along the surrounding wall to form friezes. On top of this blind gallery of trilobes and colonnettes stands a full Apostolate of spherical, nearly life-size statues. There are twelve total, with six on either side mounted to the wall and two on either side of the jambs.
The interior archivolt features reliefs of seraphim, the middle archivolt features reliefs of turiferous angels, and the exterior archivolt features reliefs of scenes from the afterlife. The Last Judgment is depicted in two halves on the tympanum. On the lintel just above the door is a long scene in relief, presided over by Saint Michael with a scale weighing the souls, surrounded on the left by demons trying to shift the weight of sins in their favour, as well as the damned being taken to Hell, and on the right by a small house with an open door representing the entrance to paradise, where there are already some nobles, a king, a queen, a monk with a hood and a Franciscan monk, the Blessed. This iconographic representation of psychostasis dates back to Romanesque art. The Déesis, a frequent Romanesque motif, depicts Christ enthroned as universal judge, with his arms lifted to display the wound in his side, and the Virgin Mary and Saint John standing at either side, pleading for pardon on behalf of the souls of the miserable. Angels riding clouds above the tympanum's peak display the Passion's emblem. Several of the photographs on this portal make an attempt at dramatism by using gestural expressions that put them in context with a more naturalistic trend with a definitely Hispanic flavor rather than the full French classicism.
The most obvious reference is the neighboring Sarmental Gate, whose perfect balance it fails to achieve, but it is also thought to be related to the Judgement on the western façade of León Cathedral and to the iconographic themes of the cathedrals of Rheims and Chartres.
Above the window with the triple-stepped arch is a gallery of three pointed arches, with mullions and tracery of three quadrilobed circles; the gallery is topped by openwork spires. There are twelve crowned statues representing Castilian monarchy mounted on the mullions, and the arches' spandrels are adorned with turreted angels. Similar to the Sarmental's front, the Coronera's gable is capped off at the top by an arched railing.