The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

The magnificent cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia is one of the most visited pilgrim destinations in the Christian world.

Santiago de Compostela came into being through a mixture of legend, religion and politics. The city owes her name to the Apostle Saint James, guardian angel of Spain. He was beheaded in 44 A.D. and according to the legend his dead body travelled in a ship built from stone, without sails or crew – and in only seven days! – from Jaffa to the coast of Galicia, where he was buried.

The exact place of internment was forgotten until a grave was discovered in 813 A.D. in the wilderness of Galicia. It was immediately identified as belonging to the apostle and was thus declared a sacred spot. The city of Santiago of Compostela was born from this and the subsequent massive rush of pilgrims from all of Christian Europe to this place.

To understand how such an unlikely story could gain such importance we have to remember that almost all of the Iberian peninsula in the 9th century was under Muslim rule, and the only Christian area was the extreme north.

There was an existing pilgrimage route already through this place, which the Celts had used for more than 1,000 years to get to their holy ground of Finisterre, some 100 km from Santiago. The Church took over the route and christianised it and thus attracted thousands and thousands of believers to this borderland between the Christian world and Islam, being the same area from which the reconquest of Spain, i.e. the re-christianezation of the Iberian peninsula, started.

The pilgrimage to the alleged grave of Saint James was by no means a spontaneous phenomenon. This had been planned among Europe’s top Christian political and religious leaders as a tool in the fight against Islam.  It was an early example of political and church slanted information, (what we would call ‘spin’ today), and this was also one of the most successful examples of the practice in history.

In Santiago all roads lead to the cathedral, which is built on the exact spot of the apostle’s presumed grave. This enormous structure has dominated the cith throughout her history and even today the cathedral dominates the skyline. The main façade faces Plaza del Obradoiro, the city’s biggest and most beautiful square and the definite focal point of the city.

The sight of the cathedral’s magnificent façade can take anyone’s breath away. In the middle it has an amazing pyramid which is flanked by two astonishing twin towers, all in the most exquisite baroque style. The whole edifice rises almost giddily upwards, striving as if it were reaching for Heaven itself.

‘Where there are stars, can also stone float?’ the poet Gerardo Diego wrote, and described the towers as ‘daring twin lillies’.

The original entrance portal, the famous ‘Pórtico de la Gloria’, which is considered a gem within Romanesque visual art, was finished in the year of 1188.

Over the years, the millions of pilgrims who have reached Santiago have said a prayer here with their fingers placed on the central pillar of the portal. They have left a touching testimony in the shape of five deep, shiny holes in the marble.

Built in the traditional pilgrim church layout, in the shape of a cross, the interior of the cathedral is an enormous lofty room, constructed to accommodate thousands of believers at the traditional pilgrim mass.  This is still celebrated every day at noon.

Each of the façades faces a magnificent square. To mention some of the most important, Fachada del Obradoiro by the architech Casa Novoa in 1740, the baroque Fachada de la Azabachería,  Fachada de Platerías by the architect of the same name in 1103; and the most important one the aforementioned Pórtico de la Gloria by Maestro Mateo in 1188.

Visit this place, steeped in history and tradition – and get away from the unbearable southern Spanish summer heat!