Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain — a city of 97,000 that is simultaneously one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in Christendom (with Jerusalem and Rome, the three great pilgrimages of medieval Christianity — pilgrims have walked to Santiago for 1,200 years to visit the relics of Saint James the Apostle, and continue to arrive today at a rate of 450,000 per year, walking the Camino de Santiago from destinations across Europe and the world), and one of the most perfectly preserved Romanesque and Baroque urban ensembles in Europe. The Praza do Obradoiro (the great square in front of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela) is framed by four of the most important buildings in Spanish architecture: the Cathedral itself (begun 1075, consecrated 1211, with the extraordinary Baroque twin-tower facade added 1738-1750 by architect Domingo de Andrade and Fernando de Casas Novoa — the Churrigueresque Baroque towers are the most photographed church facade in Spain and the most recognisable religious image in Galicia); the Hostal dos Reis Católicos (the Royal Hospital, 1501, built by Ferdinand and Isabella to house pilgrims who arrived ill — now a 5-star parador hotel, the oldest hotel in the world in continuous operation); the Pazo de Raxoi (the Archbishop's Palace, 1766); and the Colegio de San Jerónimo (15th century). Santiago is UNESCO World Heritage since 1985, with the entire historic centre and the multiple Camino routes themselves (the Camino Francés is UNESCO World Heritage, as is the Camino del Norte). The Galician culture (the language — Galician/Galego, a Romance language closely related to Portuguese; the bagpipe tradition — the gaita galega is the living bagpipe tradition of northwestern Iberia; the octopus — pulpo á feira, the boiled octopus on a wooden board with paprika, olive oil and sea salt, the most famous dish of Galicia) gives the city a Celtic-Atlantic character entirely distinct from Castilian or Mediterranean Spain.
The Praza do Obradoiro (the square of the Goldsmith's Work — named for the gold and silver work on the Cathedral facade; the square is the emotional destination of every Camino pilgrim, who arrives here after walking up to 800 km from France, Portugal, England or the German border and stands before the twin Baroque towers in tears, embrace, or collapse) is the finest medieval civic square in Spain — the Cathedral facade (1738-1750, the most dramatic Baroque facade in Spain), the Hostal dos Reis Católicos (1501 Royal Hospital, the oldest hotel in the world, with the four ornamental Plateresque courtyards), the Pazo de Raxoi, and the Colegio de San Jerónimo form the four walls of the square.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (begun 1075, Romanesque nave, Gothic chapels, Baroque facade — the building represents 900 years of continuous construction and modification) — the Pórtico da Gloria (the Romanesque entrance portal within the Cathedral, 1168-1211, by Master Mateo — considered the finest Romanesque sculptural ensemble in the world; the polychromatic stone figures of the prophets and apostles around the central figure of Saint James; the tradition of placing five fingers into the Tree of Jesse column, worn smooth by 800 years of pilgrims' hands); the crypt beneath the high altar containing the relics of Saint James the Apostle; and the Botafumeiro (the enormous silver incense burner, 80 kg, swung on a rope from the transept ceiling in a full pendulum arc reaching both the north and south facades — the largest liturgical censer in the world).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Mercado de Abastos (the covered market of Santiago de Compostela, 1941, in the Praza de Abastos — the largest food market in Galicia, with the finest fresh produce of the region: the Padrón peppers (pimientos de Padrón — small green peppers, most mild but one in ten intensely hot, impossible to distinguish visually — the classic Spanish bar snack, fried in olive oil with sea salt), the Galician pulpo (the octopus — cooked in a copper pot, sliced on a wooden board, dressed with pimentón sweet paprika, olive oil and fleur de sel), the Galician empanada (the pastry filled with tuna and tomato, or pork, or scallop), and the Albariño white wine from the Rías Baixas DO (the finest white wine in Spain for seafood pairing).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Rúa do Franco and Rúa da Raiña (the two main bar streets of the Santiago old city, running south from the Cathedral square) have the highest concentration of tapas bars and restaurants in Galicia — the free tapas with every drink (in Santiago, the bar custom is that a small plate of food accompanies every drink ordered without additional charge — a custom more generous than Seville or Granada); the Tarta de Santiago (the almond cake of Santiago — ground almonds, eggs and sugar, flavoured with lemon and cinnamon, with the Cross of Saint James stencilled in icing sugar on top — the definitive Santiago souvenir food, IGP protected).
The final 20 km section of the Camino Francés (from O Pedrouzo or Arzúa through Monte do Gozo — the Hill of Joy, where medieval pilgrims first saw the Cathedral towers — into Santiago) can be walked as a day experience by visitors who don't complete the full route; the Monte do Gozo (4 km from the city centre, a 30-min bus ride) gives the view of the Cathedral towers that has made pilgrims weep since the 10th century; the final 4 km through the old Camino streets into the Praza do Obradoiro repeats the experience of every one of the millions of pilgrims who have completed the Camino since 830 AD.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePadrón (20 km south of Santiago on the Ulla River — the town where the boat carrying the body of Saint James allegedly moored after the apostle's death in Jerusalem, marking the beginning of the Santiago pilgrimage tradition; the stone pedra where the boat was moored is preserved under the altar of the Santuario de Santiago; the town is also the home of Rosalía de Castro (1837-1885), the most important poet in Galician language and one of the greatest Spanish Romantic poets — her house "A Matanza" is the most visited literary museum in Galicia); and the birthplace of the pimiento de Padrón (the small green pepper, the plant from which mild bell peppers and the gamble-hot tapas pepper both derive).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Rías Baixas DO wine region (the five sub-zones of Galicia's Atlantic coast, stretching from Pontevedra south to the Portuguese border — the Albariño grape is the almost exclusive variety, producing wines of extraordinary aromatics: peach, white flowers, citrus zest, sea spray and mineral salinity from the granite soil) with the Pazo de Fefiñanes in Cambados (the 17th-century Baroque pazo/manor house in the main square of Cambados, which is itself one of the most beautiful Galician stone-built towns — a producer of one of the reference Albariños) or the wine tasting at any of the dozens of small Albariño producers in the Val do Salnés subzone.
The farewell Galician seafood dinner — percebes (the barnacles: gooseneck barnacles harvested by percebeiros from the Atlantic rocks in storms; the cylindrical stalks boiled in seawater for 2 minutes and eaten by pressing the tip and pulling the edible muscle out; the most expensive seafood per kg in Spain — €80-150/kg — because harvesting requires climbing slippery rocks in winter Atlantic swells); vieiras (the scallops of Galicia — the symbol of the Camino de Santiago, baked in the shell with onion, chorizo and breadcrumbs); and pulpo á feira (the boiled octopus on wood, dressed with olive oil, pimentón and coarse salt) with Rías Baixas Albariño.
Cape Fisterra (Fisterra in Galician — Finisterre in Spanish: "finis terrae" — End of the Earth; the westernmost point of the Iberian Peninsula and the westernmost point of medieval Christendom, considered by the Romans and medieval pilgrims to be the literal end of the known world; before Columbus, pilgrims who completed the Camino walked an additional 90 km from Santiago to the cape to throw their boots and clothing into the Atlantic; the lighthouse (1853) at the cape headland is the goal; 90 km west of Santiago, 75 min by bus from Santiago's Praza de Galicia) and the Costa da Morte (Death Coast — the most treacherous coastline in Spain, with the granite headlands, sea mist and hidden rocks that have sunk hundreds of ships).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMuxía (15 km north of Fisterra along the Costa da Morte — the Atlantic fishing village where the Santuario de Nosa Señora da Barca (Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Boat, 1719 — built over the stone where, according to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared in a stone boat to encourage Saint James in his preaching in Galicia; the stone "boat" — a granite rocking stone — is preserved beside the sanctuary; the setting on the granite headland with the Atlantic crashing around the sanctuary on three sides is one of the most dramatically beautiful church locations in Spain) has become the second pilgrimage goal for Camino walkers after Fisterra.
The Costa da Morte (the Coast of Death — the granite coastline from Muros in the south to Malpica in the north, 130 km of the most treacherous coastline in Spain, where the Finisterre Current, the granite reefs and the Atlantic fog have caused more than 500 documented shipwrecks over the centuries; the most recent major disaster was the Prestige oil tanker sinking in 2002, which polluted the entire coast; the villages of Carnota (the longest stone hórreo — grain granary — in Galicia, 35 m long, the largest in the world), Camariñas (the finest pillow lace in Spain), and Corme are the most distinctive coast communities.
The sunset from the Fisterra lighthouse headland (the sun sets directly into the Atlantic, the most dramatic maritime sunset on the Iberian Peninsula — medieval pilgrims watched this sunset and understood it as the setting sun over the edge of the world; the tradition of burning clothes, boots or a symbolic object at the Fisterra lighthouse at sunset to mark the completion of the pilgrimage — the "end of the journey" ritual — continues today, though the lighthouse authority officially discourages burning; the lighthouse bar serves the Galician "cunca" of wine) and the return to Santiago for the final dinner.