WHY SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA?
Party: As a university city, Santiago de Compostela has a great nightlife. Fun is guaranteed in the many bars and pubs that you can find in the city centre: there are always people ready to go out.
Food: Galician food is famous throughout Spain. Santiago is quite a cheap city, when you avoid the most touristic places to enjoy the best Galician dishes for less money. Food and seafood are just amazing.
Pilgrimage site and the capital of Galicia, Santiago is also a lively and vibrant city.
KNOW SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
Santiago de Compostela is, together with Rome and Jerusalem, one of the three main pilgrimage sites of Christianity, the end of a Way that hundreds of thousands of pilgrims walk every year to visit the tomb of one of the Apostles of Jesus Christ: the remains of James the Great were buried here by his disciples, according to Christian tradition, after he was decapitated in Judea, when he returned after preaching the gospel in Hispania.
This worship of the remains of Santiago (James) caused, in the 11th century, the construction of a Cathedral and the growth of the city. Today, Santiago de Compostela is still a special place, full of stone arcades and shiny stone pavements, covered with the smooth Galician rain. Santiago is a city with a unique charm about it, it is also the home of an important university with more than 500 years of history, adding the university life to the rest of the attractions.
WHAT TO DO?
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is an impressive example of Romanic architecture, completed with an outstanding baroque facade that dominates the Obradoiro Square. You should go at noon to see the pilgrim mass, when the huge incense burner Botafumeiro weighing 53kg swings from side to side in the temple, one of the main symbols of the city.
The streets surrounding the Cathedral, a World Heritage Site, are excellent to walk and be enveloped by the magic of the stone and the rain. You can also stop to enjoy the superb Galician wines or the seafood, which is the best in Spain.
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