Cities with a Jubilee Year of their own

As the 2025 Jubilee Year draws toward its close, pilgrims across the world are once again rediscovering the power of walking toward hope. Vatican-designated Jubilee Years—times in which the Church emphasizes mercy, renewal, and a fresh start—have always carried a magnetic pull.

But beyond Rome, a small group of cities holds a rare distinction: the right to celebrate their own local Jubilee in perpetuum. Only seven cities worldwide bear this privilege, and remarkably, five of them are in Spain.

These celebrations are far more than formal observances. A jubilee—within the Catholic tradition—marks a major milestone, often every 25, 50, or even 100 years, and takes its inspiration from the jubilee year described in the Book of Leviticus. In Leviticus 25:8–13, the Hebrew Bible describes a powerful vision: every fiftieth year, a trumpet sounded across the land announcing the release of debts, the return of ancestral property, and a renewed sense of justice. That spirit of rest, renewal, and restored relationships continues to shape how Catholic communities understand a jubilee today. These moments still influence local culture, sustain centuries-old traditions, and welcome both believers and the simply curious into a shared search for meaning. In our own era, jubilee cities extend a similar invitation—to pause, repair what is broken, and start again with a hopeful heart.

Jerusalem and Rome stand as the spiritual ancestors of every Jubilee celebration. In Jerusalem, pilgrims seek the places where the foundations of Christian faith were laid, while Rome continues the custom begun in 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the first Holy Year. These global Jubilees radiate outward, inspiring local ones that echo their spirit.

Santiago de Compostela is perhaps the most recognized of the local Jubilee cities. Its Holy Year occurs whenever July 25—the feast of St. James—falls on a Sunday. The tradition reaches back to the 12th century and has shaped Europe’s most famous pilgrimage route, the Camino. During its most recent Holy Year in 2010, the city welcomed more than 270,000 pilgrims, roughly 20% more than in ordinary years.

In northern Spain, Camaleño celebrates the Año Jubilar Lebaniego at the Monastery of Santo Toribio. Since the 16th century, pilgrims have traveled there to venerate what is believed to be the largest known fragment of the lignum crucis. Its Holy Year begins whenever the monastery’s special door is opened—a symbolic gesture that frames the Jubilee as an entryway into renewal.

Caravaca, in Murcia, was granted perpetual Jubilee status in 1998. Every seven years, its basilica draws enormous crowds to honor two relics of the cross kept there. In past Jubilees, the number of visitors has approached one million—transforming the town into a lively meeting point of devotion, history, and curiosity.

Urda, a town of just 3,000 residents in Toledo, celebrates a Jubilee each time September 29—the feast of the Cristo de la Mancha—falls on a Sunday. St. John Paul II granted this privilege in 1994 in recognition of the region’s enduring devotion. Its first Jubilee came in 1996, marking Urda as the smallest member of this extraordinary club.

Designated a “jubilar city” by Pope Francis in 2015, Valencia now celebrates a Holy Year every five years, a privilege grounded in its guardianship of the Santo Cáliz, the revered chalice long associated with the Last Supper. This papal grant encouraged the Archdiocese to shape the celebration around deep Eucharistic devotion. The Valencian Jubilee invites both believers and curious travelers to the cathedral’s Chapel of the Holy Chalice, where liturgies, pilgrim routes, and opportunities for indulgences draw growing numbers seeking the city’s blend of spiritual heritage, culture, and hospitality.

As we will soon conclude the 2025 Jubilee, these cities remind us that grace has many doorways—and some of them open far more often than once in a generation.