Santiago de Compostela

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Santiago de Compostela (also Saint James of Compostela) is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia. Located in the northwest region of Spain in the Province of A Coruña, it is the "European City of Culture" for the year 2000. The city's cathedral is the destination of the important medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St James (in Spanish the Camino de Santiago), which is still walked today. Pop. 92,298 (2004).

1 The city
- 1.1 The etymology of the name Compostela
2 Demography
3 History of the shrine and the pilgrimage
4 The cathedral
5 Sister cities
6 See also
7 Books
8 External links

[edit] The city

The Obradoiro façade of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela: an all-but-Gothic composition generated entirely of classical details

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The cathedral borders the main Plaza of the old and well-preserved city. Across the square is the Pazo de Raxoi (Raxoi's Palace), the town hall and seat of the Galician Xunta, and on the right from the cathedral steps is the Hostal de Los Reyes Católicos, founded in 1492 by the Catholic Kings, Isabela and Fernando, as a pilgrim's hospice (now a parador). The Obradoiro façade of the cathedral, the best known, is depicted on the Spanish euro coins of 1 cent, 2 cents, and 5 cents (€0.01, €0.02, and €0.05).

Santiago also has a fine University which can be seen best from an alcove in the large municipal park in the centre of the city. The University ensures youthful night life. Within the old town there are many narrow winding streets full of historic buildings. The new town all around it has less character though some of the older parts of the new town have some big apartments in them.

Santiago gives its name to one of the four military orders of Spain: Compostela, Calatrava, Alcantara and Montesa.

The prevailing wind from the Atlantic and the surrounding mountains combine to give Santiago some of Europe's highest rainfall: about 66 inches annually.

[edit] The etymology of the name Compostela

The popular etymology of the name "Compostela" holds that it comes from Latin campus stellae, i.e. "field of the star", making Santiago de Compostela "St. James in the Field of the Star". This name would come from the belief that the bones of St. James were taken from the Middle East, to Spain. These bones were then buried where a shepherd had spotted a star and a church was eventually built over the bones and later replaced with the Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela.

Another etymology is Compositum, i.e. "The well founded", or Composita Tella, meaning "burial ground".

Yet another etymology derives it from "San Jacome Apostol".

[edit] Demography

Demographic evolution of Santiago de Compostela between 1900 and 2005
1900	1930	1950	1981	2005
24,120	38,270	55,553	82,404	92,919

A Coruña Province Population c. 1900
District	population
City of Corunna	43,971
City of El Ferrol (Civilian Pop. Only)	25,281
Santiago de Compostela	24,120
Towns, Vilages and Hamlets	560,184
All the Province (Total):	653,556
(Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911) [1]

Note: The population of the City of A Coruña in 1900 was 43,971 meanwhile the population of the rest of the province including the City and Naval Station of nearby El Ferrol as well as Santiago de Compostela was 653,556. It should be noted that A Coruña miraculous growth happened during aftermaths of the Spanish Civil War at the same speed as other major Galician cities, but it was the arrival of arrival of democracy in Spain after the death of Francisco Franco the moment when the City of Corunna left all the other Galician cities behind (i.e.: with the exception of Vigo of course).

The miraculous meteoric increase of population of the City of Corunna and to a lesser degree Santiago de Compostela as well, during the years which follow the Spanish Civil War during the mid 20th century, can only be explained when we see the figures of the number of villages and hamlets of the province which disappeared or nearly disappeared during the same period. We are talking here about an economic revolution and not so much to an explosion of births or a substantial increase in living standards which of course has happened too, but looking to the overall picture what has happened is that the fields have been abandon due to the introduction of new machinery and most of the population has moved to find jobs in the main cities increasing the number of people working in the Tertiary and Quaternary sectors.

(Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911). [2] [3]

[edit] History of the shrine and the pilgrimage

[edit] The burial place of St. James

"Santiago" ("Sant Iago") means "St. James", and the city is reported to be the final resting place of the Apostle Saint James the Great, the brother of John. His remains are said to be beneath the altar in the crypt of the cathedral. According to another theory the actual remains in the crypt belong to Priscillian, an ascetic from Ávila who was beheaded as a heretic at Trier, Germany, in AD 385, but was venerated as a martyr in Galicia and other parts of northern Spain.

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 Deus accepted the authenticity of the relics at Compostela, Roman Catholic scholarship has been ambivalent about the question since the 19th century. Not least among the problems with the traditional account is that it includes the miraculous return of James's body to the Iberian peninsula after his biblically attested martyrdom in Jerusalem in about AD 44 (See Acts 12:1-2). The Cathedral authorities at Compostela remain uncommitted as to whether the relics are those of Saint James the Great, while continuing to promote the more general benefits of pilgrimage to the site.

According to a tradition that cannot be traced before the 12th century, the relics were said to have been discovered in 835 by Theodomir, bishop of Iria Flavia in the far northwest of the principality of Asturias. Theodomir was guided to the spot by a star, the legend affirmed, drawing upon a familiar myth-element, hence "Compostela" was given an etymology as a corruption of Campus Stellae, "Plain of the Star."

[edit] The establishment of the shrine

As suggested already, it is probably impossible to know whose bones were actually found, and precisely when and how. Perhaps it does not matter. What the history of the pilgrimage requires, but what the meager sources fail to reveal, is how the local Galician cult associated with the saint was transformed into an international cult drawing pilgrims from distant parts of Christendom. At Santiago itself, a building more substantial than the first shrine was begun in 868, but was totally destroyed in 997 by the Moors. On the reconquest of the city by Bermudo III of Leon (died 1037), the roads that led pilgrims from across northern Spain to the shrine were improved, and the reputation of the shrine spread.

[edit] The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

Main article: Way of St. James.

The 1000 year old pilgrimage to the shrine of St James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is known in English as the Way of St. James and in Spanish as the Camino de Santiago. Over 100,000 pilgrims travel to the city each year from points all over Europe, and other parts of the world.

[edit] Pre-Christian legends

As the lowest-lying land on that stretch of coast, the city's site took on added significance. Legends supposed of Celtic origin made it the place where the souls of the dead gathered to follow the Sun across the sea. Those unworthy of going to the Land of the Dead haunted Galicia as the Santa Compaña.

[edit] The cathedral

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Main article: Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

At the front of the Baroque facade of the original Romanesque cathedral, a golden mollusc shell adorns the altar. A steady stream of pilgrims still queue there to kiss the shell, as another sign of homage. The cathedral preserves its original barrel-vaulted cruciform Romanesque interior. Perhaps the chief beauty of the cathedral, however, is the 12th-century Portico de la Gloria, behind the Late Baroque facade. The shafts, tympana and archivolts of the three doorways which open onto the nave and aisles are a mass of strong and nervous sculpture representing the Last Judgment. Faint traces of color remain. The cathedral's facade gains from forming part of an extended architectural composition on the Plaza del Obradoiro, a grand square surrounded by public buildings. The ground rises to the cathedral, which is reached by a magnificent quadruple flight of steps, flanked by statues of David and Solomon. Access to the staircase is through some fine wrought-iron gates, and in the centre, on the level of the Plaza, is the entrance to a Romanesque chapel, the Iglesia Baja ("Lower Church"), constructed under the portico and contemporary with the cathedral. To the north and south, and in a line with the west front, are dependent buildings of the 18th century, grouping well with it. Those to the south contain a light and elegant arcade to the upper windows, and serve as a screen to the late Gothic cloisters, built in 1533 by Fonseca, afterwards archbishop of Toledo. They are said to be the largest in Spain. The north side of the cathedral is in the rich Spanish Baroque style called Churrigueresque.

In the cathedral's Capilla del Relicario ("Chapel of the Reliquary") is a gold crucifix, dated 874, reportedly containing a piece of the True Cross.

While filming a television commercial in the 12th century cathedral, in March 2004, Ronaldinho broke a window.

[edit] Sister cities

[edit] Books

Natalino Russo, La via di Santiago, CDA & Vivalda
The Pilgrimage. Paulo Coelho

[edit] External links

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Santiago de Compostela

Preceded by: Weimar	European Capital of Culture 2000 *with eight other cities*	Succeeded by: Porto and Rotterdam

Galician cities	Image:Flag of Galicia.svg
Santiago de Compostela \| A Coruña \| Vigo
Pontevedra \| Ferrol \| Lugo \| Ourense

edit	Municipalities of A Coruña	Image:Flag of Galicia.svg
Abegondo \| Ames \| Aranga \| Ares \| Arteixo \| Arzúa \| A Baña \| Bergondo \| Betanzos \| Boimorto \| Boiro \| Boqueixón \| Brión \| Cabana de Bergantiños \| Cabanas \| Camariñas \| Cambre \| A Capela \| Carballo \| Cariño \| Carnota \| Carral \| Cedeira \| Cee \| Cerceda \| Cerdido \| Cesuras \| Coirós \| Corcubión \| Coristanco \| A Coruña \| Culleredo \| Curtis \| Dodro \| Dumbría \| Fene \| Ferrol \| Fisterra \| Frades \| Irixoa \| A Laracha \| Laxe \| Lousame \| Malpica de Bergantiños \| Mañón \| Mazaricos \| Melide \| Mesía \| Miño \| Moeche \| Monfero \| Mugardos \| Muros \| Muxia \| Narón \| Neda \| Negreira \| Noia \| Oleiros \| Ordes \| Oroso \| Ortigueira \| Outes \| Oza dos Ríos \| Paderne \| Padrón \| O Pino \| A Pobra do Caramiñal \| Ponteceso \| Pontedeume \| As Pontes de García Rodríguez \| Porto do Son \| Rianxo \| Ribeira \| Rois \| Sada \| San Sadurniño \| Santa Comba \| Santiago de Compostela \| Santiso \| Sobrado \| As Somozas \| Teo \| Toques \| Tordoia \| Touro \| Trazo \| Val do Dubra \| Valdoviño \| Vedra \| Vilarmaior \| Vilasantar \| Vimianzo \| Zas

edit	Roman Catholic Church - The five Dioceses of Galicia [4]	Image:Cross Santiago.svg
Diocese of Ourense \| Diocese of Tui-Vigo \| Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela \| Diocese of Ferrol-Mondoñedo \| Diocese of Lugo

edit	Galician Regions	Image:Flag of Galicia.svg
Allariz - Maceda \| Los Ancares \| Arzúa \| La Baja Limia \| El Bajo Miño \| El Barbanza \| La Barcala \| Bergantiños \| Betanzos \| Caldas \| El Carballiño \| Chantada \| El Condado \| A Coruña \| El Deza \| El Eume \| Ferrol \| Finisterre \| La Fonsagrada \| La Limia \| Lugo \| La Mariña Central \| La Mariña Occidental \| La Mariña Oriental \| Meira \| El Morrazo \| Muros \| Noya \| Órdenes \| Ourense \| Ortegal \| La Paradanta \| Pontevedra \| Quiroga \| El Ribero \| El Salnés \| Santiago \| El Sar \| Sarria \| Tabeirós - Tierra de Montes \| La Terra Chá \| La Tierra de Caldelas \| La Tierra de Celanova \| La Tierra de Lemos \| La Tierra de Mellid \| La Tierra de Soneira \| La Tierra de Trives \| La Ulloa \| Valdeorras \| Verín \| Viana \| Vigo \| El Xallas