Primarily associated with one of the major themes of medieval history, the city of Santiago de Compostela receives over 100,000 pilgrims a year by way of a thousand-year-old Christian pilgrimage (Camino de Santiago) to the shrine of St. James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Donning the scallop shell (a symbol of the pilgrimage route) and a wooden walking staff, these visitors in search of spiritual significance travelled from across Europe (and the world) to the Galician sanctuary in Northwest Spain to worship at the believed burial site of Saint James, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. The route - considered one of the most important and well-travelled Christian pilgrimages in medieval Europe (along with Rome and Jerusalem) - brought notoriety and monumental riches to this small city for centuries. However, by the end of the Middle Ages, the area would succumb to squabbling noble rivalry, the Black Death pandemic, Protestant Reformation and European political unrest, leading to a sharp decline in prominence for centuries.
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
The city would continue its misfortune in the 19th century with the invasion of the French during the Napoleonic War and a fascist take-over during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. After the Spanish Transition (1975) - when democratic rule was restored to the country - Santiago de Compostela was declared capital city of the autonomous region of Galicia. Since the 1980s, the small city (around 100,000 residents) has been rediscovered as a tourist and pilgrimage destination, revitalizing the city’s economic and cultural prowess year by year. In 1985 the Old Town of the city, including the cathedral and Praza do Obradoiro, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The center of the city - defined by an extraordinary ensemble of Romanesque and Baroque monuments organized around a sacred tomb fought over by empires for centuries and the destination of all the roads of Christianity’s greatest pilgrimage - has maintained its monumental integrity that overflows with history and value, kept intact for future generations of visitors and scholars to take notice.
Praza do Obradoiro
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela