Santiago de Compostela

Galicia, Spain

Santiago de Compostela, World Cultural Heritage and famous for the Camino de Santiago, with its Cathedral and its surrounding squares such as Obradoiro, Immaculate, Praterías and Quintana, owners of great artistic and religious value. The Stone Choir and the Portico of Glory are the true gems of the city, in addition to its convents in San Francisco and Santo Domingo. City embellished with parks and gardens as well as other corners that are part of its historical past and present.

Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia and city of World Cultural Heritage since 1985, has a population of 96.456 people. It is situated at the most northwestern part of Spain. Its climate is oceanic, warm and temperate and its average annual temperature is 13,6ºC.

Santiago de Compostela was founded in c. 830, after King Alfonso II officially acknowledged the sepulcher of the Apostle James and named him Patron Saint of the Kingdom, making the city a spiritual centre of western Christianity as opposed to the Islamic expansion.

Diego Gelmírez, its first archbishop, was the great promoter of Santiago de Compostela and a big transformer of the city. He supervised the construction of the Cathedral, the Palace of the Archbishop and of other churches. The medieval structure of the city was defined after its death in 1140.

The Cathedral of Santiago is one of his most important works, as well as other edifices which are part of it, such as the Rock Chorus (Coro Pétreo) and the Portico of Glory, constructed in 1188. Nowadays, these buildings are considered to be masterpieces of the Romanesque and universal art. The Cathedral was at its highest point of splendor in the thirteenth century. The convents of San Francis, Saint Dominique, Saint Clara or Belvis were the new nuclei which determined the structure of the historic city beyond its walls.

During the Renaissance the city´s urban transformation started, with the construction of public, monumental spaces all around the Jacobean basilica, such as the Rajoy Palace, the Obradoiro Square, the Abastos Market as well as the park of Alameda, all of which will demonstrate the development of the city during the baroque and neoclassic periods as well as in the following centuries. Further on, during the 60s and 70s, students´ residences will be built, thus creating Campo sur at a new expanded part of the city.

Nowadays, buildings such as the Galician Center of Art, the Auditorium, the Palace of Congress and Exhibitions are also famous. Besides, the city is adorned and refreshed with parks such as the Saint Dominique Park (Parque Santo Domingo).

Some of the famous persons of this city are the actors Nerea Barros and Tamar Novas, Goya Prize winners, and the writers Isaac Diaz Pardo and Miguel d´Ors.

The cuisine of the city offers us typical dishes such as grilled scallop, octopus made the Galician way, Galician pasties and the famous dessert, the Santiago Cake.

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