SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA or SANTIAGO, a city of north-west Spain, in the province of Corunna; at the northern terminus of a railway from Tuy, near the confluence of the Sar and Sarela rivers, and 32 m. S. by W. of the city of Corunna. Pop. (193o) 38,27o. The Galician region, of which the city is the centre, is composed of hills which have been strongly folded and faulted and where in consequence metal veins occur. In the ages when metal began to be known in the West people from the Mediterranean moved along the coasts of western Europe, and with these movements was associated the cult of the megaliths. In those days navigation was precarious and sailors made for one of a number of small ports which had a common focus in land. Santiago was probably a focus for the numerous ports on the Galician rias. (Cf. Canterbury and St. David's.) At Padron, one of the ports of Santiago, there are two great stones called Barca and Patron (the ship and the skipper). The tradition of the sanctity of the old stone monuments lingered for centuries and the legend arose that St. James the Apostle had, of ter his martyrdom in Palestine, been borne hither for burial and that the body was brought ashore at Padron.
After the Moorish conquest the north-west-corner was the only part of Spain that retained its independence and it was the region from which the reconquest of Spain for Christendom was begun. This produced a great enthusiasm for the Christian re ligion, an enthusiasm fanned by the reputed discovery of the bones of St. James at Compostela. A church was built over the relics and a bishopric transferred thither. The city thus became a centre for pilgrims and when the royal family of Castile be came connected by marriage with that of Burgundy, which was associated with the Cluniac monks, the site gained an interna tional significance. The road (route de S. Jacques) of the pil
grims became famous and many of the great romances of the middle ages developed from the tales told by the pilgrims to while away the tedium of the long journey to this remote corner of Spain. (Cf. the Canterbury Tales.) There were also many pil grims from those western fringes of Europe, which had been con nected with Galicia ages before in the early days of metal. The city was formerly the capital of Galicia, and is still the seat of a university and of an archbishopric, which long disputed the claim of Toledo to the primacy of all Spain. Its chief industries, apart from agriculture, are brewing, distillation of spirits, and the manufacture of linen, paper, soap, chocolate and matches. The city has also been long celebrated for its silversmiths' work. In 1078 the erection of the present cathedral was begun and was consecrated in I 21 I. It is a cruciform Romanesque building.
The Puerta Santa is kept closed, except in jubilee years, when it is opened by the archbishop. Perhaps the chief beauty of the cathedral is the Portico de la Gloria, behind the western classic portal. It is a work of the 12th century, and probably the utmost development of which round-arched Gothic is capable. The shafts, tympana, and archivolts of the three doorways which open on to the nave and aisles are a mass of strong sculpture.
The Hospicio de los Reyes, on the north of the Plaza Mayor, for the reception of pilgrims, was begun in 1504 by Enrique de Egas under Ferdinand and Isabella.