Ciudad de la semana: Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela, commonly known as Santiago, is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain.

The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the city's cathedral, as destination of the Way of St. James, a leading Catholic pilgrimage route originated in the 9th century. In 1985 the city's Old Town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


Santiago de Compostela is associated with one of the major themes of medieval history. From the shores of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea thousands of pilgrims carrying the scallop shell and the pilgrim's staff for centuries walked to the Galician sanctuary along the paths of Santiago, veritable roads of faith. Around its cathedral, a masterpiece of Romanesque art, Santiago de Compostela conserves a valuable historic centre worthy of one of Christianity's greatest holy cities. During the Romanesque and Baroque periods the sanctuary of Santiago exerted a decisive influence on the development of architecture and art, not only in Galicia but also in the north of the Iberian peninsula.

This is an extraordinary ensemble of distinguished monuments grouped around the tomb of St James the Greater, the destination of all the roads of Christianity's greatest pilgrimage from the 11th to the 18th century. Santiago de Compostela, owing to its monumental integrity, enshrines both specific and universal values. To the irreplaceable uniqueness of Romanesque and Baroque masterpieces is added the transcendental aesthetic contribution which makes use of diachronic and disparate elements in the construction of an ideal city which is overflowing with history. The exemplary nature of this city of Christian pilgrimage which is enriched by the ideological connotations of the Reconquista is echoed by the great spiritual significance of one of the few places that are so deeply imbued with faith as to become sacred for the tile of humanity.

On the miraculously discovered spot where the bones of the Apostle had been buried, a basilica was erected in approximately 818 during the reign of Alfonso II, king of Asturias. The Galician tomb thereafter became the symbol of the resistance of Spanish Christians against Islam. At the battle of Clavijo (844) the victory over the forces of Abd ar Rahman II was attributed to Santiago. Taken and laid waste in 997 by Al Mansour, the city was rebuilt during the 11th century around the Apostle's tomb, which had not been violated.

The oldest monuments date back to this period - the main body of the cathedral, consecrated in 1211, with its admirable Romanesque structure (plan in the form of a Latin cross, choir and deambulatory and radiating chapels, interior space magnified by the great number of galleries) and its sculpted array (Puerta de las Platerías at the southern arm of the transept). Building continued throughout the 12th century and drew to a triumphal close in 1188 with the erection of the Portico de la Gloria in the main facade.

The continuous embellishment process which characterizes the life of this edifice, to which were added Gothic chapels at the choir and transept, the cupola in 1448, the 16th-century cloister and finally the immense Churrigueresque casket of the Obradoiro (1738-50) is symbolic of the future of the entire medieval city, which has been profoundly transformed over the centuries yet respect for its monumental quality has always been maintained.

At the Plaza de España, one of the world's most beautiful urban areas, there is an intermingling of the Romanesque and Gothic forms in the Palace of Diego Gelmírez and San Jerónimo, of the Baroque facade of the Hospital Reál with its inset Plateresque portal by Enrique de Egas (1505-11) and the neoclassical theme of the Rajoy Palace.

Elsewhere in ensembles whose composition is less forceful, civil and religious architectural elements from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are also integrated into a high-quality urban fabric where 17th- and 18th-century themes prevail. (Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC)

The population of the city in 2012 was 95,671 inhabitants, while the metropolitan area reaches 178,695. By language, according to 2008 data, 21% of the population always speak in Galician, 15% always speak in Spanish and the rest use both interchangeably.

WAY OF ST. JAMES

The legend that St James found his way to the Iberian Peninsula, and had preached there is one of a number of early traditions concerning the missionary activities and final resting places of the apostles of Jesus. Although the 1884 Bull of Pope Leo XIII Omnipotens Deusaccepted the authenticity of the relics at Compostela, the Vatican remains uncommitted as to whether the relics are those of Saint James the Greater, while continuing to promote the more general benefits of pilgrimage to the site.

According to a tradition that can be traced back at least to the 12th century, when it was recorded in the Codex Calixtinus, Saint James decided to return to the Holy Land after preaching in Galicia. There he was beheaded, but his disciples managed to get his body to Jaffa, where they found a marvelous stone ship which miraculously conducted them and the apostle's body to Iria Flavia, back in Galicia. There, the disciples asked the local pagan queen Loba ('She-wolf') for permission to bury the body; she, annoyed, decided to deceive them, sending them to pick a pair of oxen she allegedly had by the Pico Sacro, a local sacred mountain where a dragon dwelt, hoping that the dragon would kill the Christians, but as soon as the beast attacked the disciples, at the sight of the cross, the dragon exploded. Then the disciples marched to collect the oxen, which were actually wild bulls which the queen used to punish her enemies; but again, at the sight of the Christian's cross, the bulls calmed down, and after being subjected to a yoke they carried the apostle's body to the place where now Compostela is. The legend was again referred with minor changes by the Czech traveller Jaroslav Lev of Rožmitál, in the 15th century.

The relics were said to have been later rediscovered in the 9th century by a hermit named Pelagius, who after observing strange lights in a local forest went for help after the local bishop, Theodemar of Iria, in the west of Galicia. The legend affirms that Theodemar was then guided to the spot by a star, drawing upon a familiar myth-element, hence "Compostela" was given an etymology as a corruption of Campus Stellae, "Field of Stars."

In the 15th century, the red banner which guided the Galician armies to battle, was still preserved in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in the centre Saint James riding a white horse and wearing a white cloak, sword in hand: The legend of the miraculous armed intervention of Saint James, disguised as a white knight to help the Christians when battling the Muslims, was a recurrent myth during the High Middle Ages.

***Santiago de Compostela


***Santiago Turismo


***El camino de Santiago


***Santiago según la UNESCO