Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela - details and images
Santiago de Compostela is the historical capital of the Spanish province of Galicia. Name, Santiago, comes from the Apostle James, brother of John the Evangelist.
An old tradition says that the relics of the saint were brought to the Iberian Peninsula by a miracle. A papal bull of 1884, of Leo XII, the authenticity of the existing relics here.
In sec. the ninth century, King Alfonso II of Asturias had built a small church on the site of the tomb, discovered in 819 AD It was destroyed in 997 by Moorish army of al-Mansur, but the Apostle's relics were left intact. The cathedral was rebuilt and expanded in subsequent years, the city of Santiago de Compostela became the most important Christian pilgrimage site after Jerusalem and Rome, where the Holy Sepulchre of Christ and that, St. Peter's tomb. Medieval pilgrims traveling across the St. James Way walk for months to get to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
Despite the facade of Baroque hall, the cathedral is built mostly in the Romanesque style and is just one of the most beautiful Romanesque cathedral in Spain.
Construction began in 1060 under the reign of Alfonso VI and was completed in 1211. Several items were added later, culminating in the dramatic transformation of the baroque exterior, which took place between sec. XVI-XVIII. The interior was fully preserved Romanesque style.
The relics of St. James, the reason for the cathedral, were lost in 1700, after being hidden because of an English invasion. Fortunately, they were rediscovered in 1879, during a reconstruction, along with other relics of two of his disciples.
Most of St. James have been identified by a church in Tuscany, who owned a part of the skull which fit perfectly into a hole of one of the skulls discovered. Relics identity was confirmed by Pope Leo XIII and later by Pope John Paul II, who made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1982.
The cathedral is located just outside the old city's central market. Even if it has gone through several restorations, has managed to retain its original dome shape, and the Romance of the interior cross
Consciousness as a recognition of its spiritual and cultural world of Europe, 1987 Camino de Santiago a European Cultural Drum became, in 1993 was included in UNESCO's list of universal cultural heritage, and in 2000, Santiago de Compostela was declared European Cultural Capital .
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