Religious Tourism: The Way to Santiago

CHAPTER 3 THE WAY TO SANTIAGO
“Being an extraordinary monument set grouped around the tomb of Santiago
the Greater one, and destination of all the routes of the greater peregrination of the
Christianity between centuries XI and XVIII, Santiago de Compostela is undoubtedly
one of the most unquestionable properties inherited from parents of the Humanity.
This city, due to its monumental integrity, reunites specific and universal values. To
the unique character of its different masterpieces and the transcendental aesthetic
contribution is added that makes use of diachronic elements. The nature of this city
of Christian peregrination, enriched by the ideological connotations of the
Reconquest, has its echo in the enormous spiritual meaning of one of the few deeply
places of faith as to become asylums for all the Humanity (...)”
The Way of St. James was, in effect, declared a World Heritage Route by UNESCO
eight years later in 1993.
3.6 Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, conceived as a small city of stone centred
on holy relics and endowed with its own life, has evolved with vitality through the
years, resulting in today’s heterogeneous building of different historical styles and
artistic tendencies that have been successively superimposed.
The Romanesque Cathedral, designed according to the French model of pilgrimage
churches, was erected (1075-1211) on the site of the first churches that were built in
the place where the Apostle’s ashes appeared, the last of which was destroyed by
Almanzor in the summer of 997. The boom of the pilgrimages and the riches of one
of the Iberian Peninsula’s biggest feudal estates enabled the beginning of the
cathedral’s construction during the episcopacy of Diego Peláez. The building has a
traditional Latin-cross ground plan with three naves. The ambulatory surrounds the
High Altar in order to provide access to the relics by means of a small transversal
corridor where the apostolic ashes are kept. The naves have cruciform pillars with
annexed columns. Elegant semicircular arches are used to delimit the volumes. The
gallery was built on top of the side naves, all along the cathedral’s length, the arms of
David Mashhadigholam Rojo 36