The Cathedral is an integral component of the Santiago de Compostela World Heritage Site in Galicia and the reputed burial place St James, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ. Historically a place of pilgrimage, it marks the traditional end of the pilgrimage route on the Way of St. James since the Early Middle Ages.
History. According to legend, the apostle Saint James brought Christianity to the Iberian Peninsula. In 44 AD, he was beheaded in Jerusalem. His remains were later brought back to Galicia, Spain. Following the Roman persecution of Spanish Christians, his tomb was abandoned in the 3rd century. According to legend, the tomb was rediscovered in 814 AD by the hermit Pelagius, after he witnessed strange lights in the night sky. Bishop Theodomirus of Iria recognized this as a miracle and informed King Alfonso II of Asturias and Galicia (791–842). The king ordered the construction of a chapel on the site. Legend has it that the king was the first pilgrim to this shrine. This was followed by the first church in 829 AD and then in 899 AD by a pre-Romanesque church which caused the gradual development of this major place of pilgrimage.
In 997 the early church was reduced to ashes by Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir (938–1002), army commander of the caliph of Córdoba. St James’ tomb and relics were left undisturbed. Construction of the present cathedral began in 1075 on the same plan as the monastic brick church of Saint Sernin in Toulouse, probably the greatest Romanesque edifice in France. It was built mostly of granite. Construction was halted several times and the last stone was laid in 1122.
Due to its growing importance as a place of pilgrimage, it was soon raised to an archiepiscopal see by Pope Urban II in 1100. A university was added in 1495. The cathedral was expanded and embellished with additions in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
Exterior. Each of the façades with their adjoining squares constitutes a magnificent urban square. The 1188 Pórtico da Gloria has three round arches with a mullion with the figure of Santiago seated with a pilgrim’s staff.
Interior. The cathedral is 97 m long and 22 m high, barrel-vaulted, cruciform with a Romanesque interior. It consists of a nave, two lateral aisles, a wide transept, and a choir with radiating chapels. It is the largest Romanesque church in Spain and one of the largest in Europe.
Behind the portico stands the statue of Maestro Mateo, the master architect and sculptor. It is said that whoever butts their head three times against the statue will be given a portion of Mateo’s genius and perhaps enhanced memory. There was formerly a long line of visitors waiting to bump their heads against the statue, but he is now blocked off because a hole has started to indent into him from all the head bumps.
The nave. The barrel-vaulted nave and the groin-vaulted aisles consist of eleven bays, while the wide transept consists of six bays. Lit galleries run at a remarkable height, above the side aisles around the church.
The choir is surrounded by an ambulatory and five radiating chapels. An enormous baldachin, with a sumptuously decorated statue of Saint James from the 13th century, rises above the main altar. The pilgrims can kiss the saint’s mantle via a narrow passage behind the altar.
The radiating chapels constitute a museum of paintings, retables, reliquaries and sculptures, accumulated throughout the centuries. In the Chapel of the Reliquary is a gold crucifix, dated 874, containing an alleged piece of the True Cross.
Crypt. Below the main altar, it shows the substructure of the 9th-century church, the final destination of the pilgrims. The crypt houses the relics of Saint James and two of his disciples.
Botafumeiro. A dome above the crossing contains the pulley mechanism to swing the “Botafumeiro”, the largest censer in the world, weighing 80 kg and measuring 1.60 m in height. It is normally on exhibition in the cathedral library, but during certain important religious holidays, it is attached to the pulley mechanism, filled with 40 kg of charcoal and incense. In the Jubilee Years (whenever St James’s Day falls on a Sunday) the Botafumeiro is also used in all the Pilgrims’ Masses. Eight red-robed tiraboleiros pull the ropes and bring it into a swinging motion almost to the roof of the transept, reaching speeds of 80 km/h and dispensing thick clouds of incense.
