Santiago de Compostela (and Galicia)
Central Catedral
Iter Sancti Jacobi
Food
The Botafumeiro
Exploring the town
The Market
The Gates of Glory
A Park
Reading churches
Galicia and the Rias
see also Fit the First of the European pilgrimage - Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna, Siena
Fit the Second of the European pilgrimage - Pisa and the Cinque Terra
Fit the Third of the European pilgrimage - Barcelona
Fit the Fifth of the European pilgrimage - Northern Spain
Fit the Sixth of the European pilgrimage - Salamanca, Segovia, Madrid and home
17 to 20 June - Santiago de Compostela. For time out of mind I have had the idea of emulating the medieval pilgrim by taking the road to Santiago de Compostela, in western Galicia, the assumed resting place of Spain's patron saint, James the Elder. As it turned out we came to Santiago by plane rather than shank's mare but, through good luck and good planning, we came in a Holy Year (those years when James' Saint Day falls on a Sunday - 2010 is the next holy year; then there is an eleven year gap until 2021) and about a month before the place would be overly crowded - Jimmy's day is in late July. We had three days exploring the town and enjoying its ambience, before picking up a rental car on Sunday 20 June (our fourth day there) for a drive to the Galician coast, a one-day test drive before setting forth on the week-long driving section of the pilgrimage. 
We had booked accommodation in what turned out to be a lovely B&B style pension where we occupied the third (top) floor (you can see our enclosed white balcony in the image on left), with Margaret, Cath's mum, 
having a single overlooking the entire city (see right) and Cath and I having a double on the other side, looking over parkland.
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Central Catedral
Santiago de Compostela has the attributes of a pilgrimage site, a medieval town and a university town. 
The old town is now surrounded by an increasingly large modern town with the usual European apartment buildings dominating the extensive suburbs. 
Our pension was in one of the modern streets that circled the old town, between it and the extensive parklands on the south-western side. A walk of 100 meters saw us entering the narrow alleys of the old part of town where, despite the modern amenities of internet cafes and tourist tat souvenir shops, the buildings maintained the facade of the twelfth century town. 
There were of course rarely cars in these central streets, foot traffic only, except for a small number of delivery trucks on some of the wider streets. 
The university buildings were located in the north-eastern corner of the town, which has, in its centre, the cathedral church of St James, surrounded by a series of squares. We first approached it from one of three parallel alleys, largely dominated by taverns and souvenirs, that led from the southern entrance to the cathedral, and 
deposited us in a small square (Praterias) dominated by a large fountain. A few pilgrims, with the patina of road dust, were in the square, even though the southern transept was not the entrance into which they were supposed to walk. We were to discover, over the next few days, the three other sides to the cathedral. The pilgrim route came through the northern gate of the town, up the narrow road to Cervantes Square and thence down to the cathedral entrance in the northern transept. 
The main entrance to the cathedral was, of course, from the west, on a huge square (Obradoiro)
that was bounded by, among other buildings, the Parador Hostal Dos Reyes Catolicos and the former Palacio de Roxoy - now used to house the Galician government. 
On the eastern side is Quintana square. From that square there is a small door that is only open during the holy years through which there is access to a narrow passage behind the altar where a large statue of St James is displayed. Climbing a narrow stair, pilgrims arrive behind the statue and can there kiss the Saint's mantle, completing the pilgrimage and earning the dividends of one's visit.
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Historical note: Iter Sancti Jacobi
What is probably the world's first tourist guide was the fifth book of the Liber Sancti Jacobi (the Book of St James), a twelfth century Everything you needed to know about Jimbo but were afraid to ask. This fifth book, the Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago de Compostela, contains material that might be classed as "Spanish pilgrimage on five groats a day". It outlines the four roads through France that meet at Puente la Reina (the Queen's Bridge) and then join to form a road 600 kilometers west to Santiago, now known as the Camino Real (the Royal Road) or the Camino Frances (the French Road). In medieval times it was the Iter Sancti Jacobi (the Way of St James). The pilgrimage to the remains of Santiago was one of big three High Medieval pilgrimages, with Rome and Jerusalem as the other two, and probably the most common among Western Europeans. And the Guide discussed the best stopping places, the most hospitable monasteries and the best eating for the pilgrim along the Road.
St James' remains had been 'discovered' in Galicia in the ninth century at a time when the remnants of Christian Spain needed some unifying theme, to withstand the Moors who occupied the vast majority of the peninsula. The legend of James' apostolic work in Spain and the fact that his body had miraculously washed ashore in Spain provided some of that unification, as did his 'appearance' at the head of the Christian armies in the Battle of Clavijo in 844. Thenceforth, among his other attributes, he was Santiago Matamoros, St James the Moor-Slayer, and his relics became a place to which pilgrims increasingly came from the tenth century on, with probably half a million pilgrims a year by the end of the eleventh century. Because one of his miracles involved the rescue from the sea of a man and his horse, 
both of whom emerged covered with cockle shells, the Coquille St Jacques became the symbol of the saint and the pilgrims to his shrine festooned themselves with this symbol - as they do to this day.
While its popularity has waxed and waned in the centuries since the 'Catholic monarchs' (Los Reyes Catolicos) Ferdinand and Isabella founded 
the hostel for pilgrims next to the cathedral that is now one of the government-run luxury paradors, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela saw a revival in the twentieth century, particularly after the fall of Franco. The pilgrimage is especially popular in a Holy Year, when completion of the pilgrimage by kissing the Saint's statue's mantle gives one an ecclesiastical get-out-of-jail-free card: forgiveness for a whole raft of sins. Also, on arrival, pilgrims can present their Pilgrim Passports, duly stamped at each of their halts along the way, at the Cathedral's Pilgrim Office, and apply for the Compostela, the traditional certificate in Latin confirming their completion of the pilgrimage. This certificate also entitles them (provided they are among the first 10 in the queue) to three free meals a day for three days in the staff quarters of the parador. The pilgrims' right to hospitality has survived the change in the status of the hospital from its original incarnation to luxury hotel.
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Food
Before we got to the cathedral on that first day, Cath and I stopped at the first decent looking tapas bar - a family-run establishment, with a bar at the front and a small number of seats at the back. Dad ran the bar; mama did the cooking. We enjoyed croquettes, chorizo in wine and prawns in garlic, together with some local beer. This was the first of a number of excellent meals in Santiago, and in other provincial Spanish towns that we visited. Tapas is the original fast food, but it is fast food without the pejorative connotations now usually applying to that term.
The best feed in Santiago was probably at a place called Casa Manolo, a restaurant on Cervantes Square and one of Cath's discoveries. This offered a three course menu (well, two courses plus bread, water and yoghurt) for 6 euros/head (c$10 each). The food was simple, tasty and filling and, anyway, at that price who wanted to argue. While we were eating there, a religious procession passed down the street next to the eatery - looking like one of the Marian cults, judging by the statue of Our Lady that led the parade. Spain is a place that retains many of the links to simpler, earlier times when religious devotion was an ingrained part of the fabric of society. It was instructional to see the tables of foreign (but obviously Catholic) pilgrims watching this (Dionysian) procession and comparing local customs to their own more Apollonian religious customs.
Another of the great eateries was discovered by Margaret and was on the periphery of the old town, on the easternmost street on which cars were allowed, opposite the police station. This was a much more up-market cafe than Casa Manolo. Here we had a more elaborate tapas meal: tortilla with prawn, pimento de padron, mushrooms and prawns in garlic and calamares, all washed down with red wine. The pimentos were small green peppers from the nearby town of Padron, grilled to perfection, but the highlight was the ultra-garlicly-tasting mushroom and prawn dish.
Santiago de Compostela lived up to our expectations of small Spanish towns, with great food and vino tinto and drinkable beer. Even the coffee and cakes were better than edible. One of the advantages I suppose of a town that has to cope with students, backpackers and pilgrim inundations.
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We are incensed
Perhaps the major highlight of the visit to Santiago de Compostela occurred in the catedral during some of the services. We were privileged to join what I coined the Society of the Botafumeiro (motto: "We are incensed"). 
The silver Botafumeiro is the giant censer that is swung from north to south across the crucero of the 
cathedral during major masses. So huge is it that it takes eight men to swing it. Took us by surprise the first time we saw it in action too. Margaret and Cath had gone to Vespers on the first night we were there and, while they enjoyed the services, they had nothing much to report. 
On Friday we had arrived at the cathedral at 1130 for the 1200 service and the place was packed. We decided to wander around the city, rather than stand for the entire service. In the evening, when we were on our way to Casa Manolo, Cath decided she needed to go back to the hotel, so Margaret and I went into the southern transept to watch the final part of Vespers. This time there was a full Mass, plus sermon, that I was able partly to understand. 
Then eight lay assistants started lowering the 54 kg Botafumeiro and loading it with incense-imbued burning wood. Up they pulled it up partway to the roof and, each taking one of the cords that were attached to the thicker main rope, itself connected by a series of pulleys to the Botafumeiro, started a rhythmic movement that caused the censer to move on the north-south axis. Higher and higher it swung, until the rope was horizontal and the censer was in the eaves of the roof above where we were sitting. Cath had rejoined us while this was going on and the three of us sat open-mouthed. I was convinced that, any minute, the huge metal incense-burner would separate from its rope and either fly out a window or whack the congregation on its collective bonce. Gradually, the swingers started slowing their rhythm and the burner came back to the vertical. The smell of incense pervaded the cathedral and I for one was impressed by the show.
Cath and I has wandered around the town on the Saturday (Margaret had wanted to wander on her own that morning) arriving at the cathedral, intending to view the Doors of Glory, at about 1330, at a time when we thought the services would be over for the afternoon. But, being Saturday and some festival day (John the Baptist?), there was a further service starting when we arrived so we went down the nave to the where it meets the crucero and thus had another, even closer, view of Botafumeiro doing its thing, this time right behind the swingers. Where there was no chance of it hitting us when the line separated. Awesome.
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Wandering stars
In addition to the tourism shops, replete with the important St James related material such as staff, cockle shell and gourd and with t-shirts and 
the same sort of tat you'll find in most tourism locations, Santiago has a large number of good jewellery shops, some with quite interesting designs. Amboa was the name of the establishment where we spent a fair amount of time, looking particularly at silver and some semi-precious stones as well. Margaret, on her first trip overseas, and with a number of family members on her mind for souvenirs, wanted to stop at most of the shops we passed, the t-shirts as much as the jewels. So we got to see quite a variety of wares over the three days we spent in the town. We also got to see more than a few pilgrims. 
Some, apparently Spanish, arrived at the town by tourist bus that disgorged them a few hundred meters outside town. 
Thence they would walk through the Porta do Camino, in the northern wall of the town, up the hill towards Cervantes Square, past the Church of Sta Maria do Camino, which was in medieval times the first church that pilgrims stopped at before completing their walk to the cathedral. 
From Cervantes, dominated now by a statue of the author on top of a stone column, the pilgrims descend the hill to the door in the north transept (below right), if proceeding to a service, or to the Plaza Quintana if they wanted to kiss the Saint's mantle. 
(One effect of the visit to Santiago is to posit the thought that Luther protested in vain. One of his major concerns was the use of Indulgences, that could be purchased, to forestall the effects of sins. Nowadays, the Catholic Church doesn't subsidise pardoners but the forgiveness racket is not dead. A visit in Holy Year to Santiago gets you a plenary indulgence and other ticks on the sin ledger.) Other pilgrims were more obviously long-distance walkers, who had traversed the camino at least from Puente la Reina, if not from further away.
They were supplemented by peletons of bike-riders who had followed the same course. The walkers were more obviously at the end of a long journey and many of them attended a number of Masses, even after collecting their reward at the Saint's mantle or the Pilgrims' Office. 
Whether they were locals who'd walked from the tourist bus or Europeans (mainly) who'd done a longer trip, they were armed with a staff, with cockle shell attached and gourd usually hanging from it. The locals had staves that were shorter and obviously not meant to assist with walking; the walkers had real staves, very much like the ones we'd carried through the Cinque Terre.
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Market
Not all of Santiago is connected directly with the James industry. In our peregrinations we saw a number of other bits and pieces that were worth noting. 
For example, the town market, which we wandered through on Saturday was full of interesting produce, fruits and cuts of meat that were so different from our own that there was little connection. 
On the other hand, the fish and the seafood looked great and most of the fruit and vegetables, brought in from local farms that very morning, were tempting. Pity we had no cooking facilities. While it did not compare for quality or quantity with the market of Bologna, it had its own attractions.
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Glory
I mentioned that I wanted to look at the Portico de la Gloria (the Doorway of Glory) just inside the western - main - doorway to the cathedral, forming the actual entrance to the nave. (This has traditionally been the entrance through which the pilgrims entered the catedral, although they now seem to be encouraged to use the north transept.) 
Designed and executed in the late twelfth century by Maestro Matteo, the Portico is in fact a triple doorway with statuary around and over the three rounded entrances. What is interesting is that, in this most Christian of churches, at the end of a major medieval pilgrimage, the three sets of statuary pay tribute to the Christian Church in the centre, which make sense, but also to the Jews on the left and the pagans on the right. 
Given the later Spanish persecution, and forced conversion, of the Jews, particularly in the time of Los Reyes Catolicos, it is a reminder that it wasn't always so and that this country has, during it history, been a cosmopolitan melting-pot of Christian, Hebrew, Islamic and pagan cultures. The Portico de la Gloria is a reminder in art of that period. (In the south of Spain, you'll see many synagogues from late Islamic and early Christian times and Mudejar architecture that mixes Islamic and Christian artistic traditions.) 
Even leaving aside their implications and message, the carvings are lovely. On one of the columns just inside the doorway is a carving of Mateo's face. Touching it with one's own head is supposed to bring wisdom. And the column itself is worn by the fingers of the faithful who have traditionally touched it on their entrance to the cathedral to pay tribute to the builders.
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Park
Just opposite our pension, on the Rua do Pombal, is a large parkland. the Alameda. At night we can hear the town's youth who meet there to listen to loud music and share a drink (and perhaps bodily fluids). On Saturday, before setting off on a discovery tour of the township, seeking those sights we hadn't as yet seen, we walk around the parkland. There is an exhibition on the historic Camino. This is quite interesting, with some good maps, some models and diaramas on medieval life and the construction of the camino from Puente la Reina. What is also suggested was that, as the Christians re-conquered Spain, a series of other caminos were established, from the south and from the south-west, starting in Seville and Lisbon, respectively. All of this was displayed in Spanish only, so some prior knowledge of the times (and a little knowledge of Romance languages) helped. 
The parklands were quite extensive and were at the top of a hill, overlooking both the old town to the north-east, and the new suburbs in the other direction. They were covered in some truly lovely flowers, shrubs and trees, and a profusion of color. Some of the flowers were red and yellow in color and had thorny stems (roses I think the botanically minded call them). 
In the north-western corner of the park, we found one of the better lookouts, under a wide and expansive grey gum eucalyptus. Made us feel right at home. Even more so as a bus load of Japanese tourists hove into view, cameras at the ready, to take advantage of the vantage for pictures of the catedral.
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Revisionism
As I've noted before, we were taught how to 'read' cathedrals by an eccentric pom who conducted tours at Chartres. Sometimes you can read the history of religious fashion from churches. 
While down among the university buildings, near the markets, in the opposite corner of Santiago from where we were staying, we came across an old Jesuit church that had been remodelled after a different subset of Catholicism took it iover from the then out of favor Society of Jesus. What had once been pediment statues of Ignatius Loyola and a mate had been slightly altered to make them Saints Peter and Paul. I love such serendipitous discoveries.
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A Focus on the roads
On the Sunday, Cath and I went back to the airport to pick up the hire car that we'd use for the next eight or so days. A Ford Focus manual was what we were given. To test out our ability to drive the car, and also to get a look at the Galician west coast (we'd be heading north the next day as we started the driving part of the pilgrimage), we did a four-five hour drive around the Rias Bajas. The Rias are a series of inlets along the north-west coast of the Iberian peninsula. The Rias Altas along the north coast and the Rias Bajas further south, along the west coast. They are large inlets, serving as mouths of the rivers but (in the case of the Rias Bajas) also are cut dramatically into the coastal cliff-faces, making almost fjord-like bays, only not quite so crinkly. The drive proved first of all that there was some lovely and dramatic scenery in the area, although nothing much to compare with the east coast of Australia or Pacific Coast Highway One, and second that we could drive from A to B in foreign parts, in the face of signs and symbols in a strange language, on the wrong side of the road, in a diesel-powered sedan, with me navigating, find what we set out to find and get back again without getting lost too frequently. 
When we had reached the scenic seaside village of Muros, having driven around the northern side a beautiful, but not very highly cliffed ria, and had a look around its harbour, Cath decided that we could be a bit more adventurous so we drove further south than we planned, following the same ria back around and then tracking its southern side and across the peninsula, and 
found the charming old fishing village of Ribiera on the point of a peninsula on the northern side of the next ria south. An even more beautiful drive along the north side of Ribiera's ria took us over viaducts, down to seaside villages and up into some craggy hills, and their villages, to Padron, the home of the green peppers we'd eaten a day earlier in Santiago. As is the case in all our favorite scenery, we really enjoyed the drive around the cliff faces, with lovely green and rocky hills on one side and the water on the other. The last few kilometers were a bit of a test, ordinary road from Padron to Santiago, caused us to rethink how far we may be able to drive in a day - but it proved we could negotiate Spanish roads.
Next issue. The pilgrimage becomes motorised. We take to the roads of northern Spain, drive from Santiago to the north coast and east along that coast before turning south, over the mountains to Burgos and the central meseta, before going further south to Madrid.
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First written: April 2005
see also Fit the First of the European pilgrimage - Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna, Siena
Fit the Second of the European pilgrimage - Pisa and the Cinque Terra
Fit the Third of the European pilgrimage - Barcelona
Fit the Fifth of the European pilgrimage - Northern Spain
Fit the Sixth of the European pilgrimage - Salamanca, Segovia, Madrid and home
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