Santiago de Compostella
A highlight of this itinerary must be our visit to Santiago de Compostella, the third most important place of pilgrimage in Christendom after Jerusalem and Rome. The badge of the Santiago pilgrims is the scallop shell, found abundantly along the Galician ria coastline, and these were much in evidence in a town that is still an active pilgrimage centre. We arrived on a Sunday with the region experiencing some of the warmest October temperatures on record, so it was understandable that the city was thronged with visitors. Pilgrims arrived periodically in the main square to tap point zero of their pilgrimage route, a brass scallop shell set into the granite flagstones, before hastening into the cathedral for the midday pilgrims’ mass. The cathedral presents a baroque façade to the main square, facing an eighteenth century edifice now used as the regional law courts. On the north side our base for the day, the Hostal de Los Reis Catolicos, named in honor of Ferdinand and Isabella whose marriage cemented an alliance between Castile and Aragon to produce a powerful enough military polity to oust the Moors from their last stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula with the fall of Granada in 1492. They lie together in the Capella Real in Granada is what amounts to a political mausoleum, bequeathing a legacy of militant Catholicism that survived through to the fall of the Franco regime in 1975.
The fall of Granada ended the long process of the Reconquista which began in this north-western corner of the Iberian Peninsula. Early on in that process one Christian knight saw a vision of St James riding to his aid and the cult of Santiago Matamoros was born, St James the Slayer of the Moors. He has a statue in a side chapel inside the cathedral and it was interesting to see that although the saint on his white charger was clearly visible, the beheaded Moor at his feet had been hidden by a floral display — a sign of the times, perhaps? As early as the ninth century, the local bishop had identified the remains of the James the Apostle who is reputed to have brought Christianity to Spain, and a small church in Santiago began its long march to cathedral status. During today’s pilgrims’ mass the homily was given by the bishop himself, successor to a long line of distinguished clerics. At the end of mass, the great incense burner known as the botafumeiro was swung the breadth of the transept as the glorious sound of the cathedral organ resonated in the crowded cathedral, a truly memorable occasion for all who witnessed it. After the mass, we enjoyed a splendid lunch in the Hostal de Los Reis Catolicos, preceded by Galician folk dancers and accompanied by the merry singing of the university tunas. After lunch, tours of the interior of the cathedral were offered, including a view of the restored east front, a vividly sculpted tableau, the work of Master Matthew, which has aptly been described as a summation of mediaeval theology in stone.
We had disembarked in La Coruna and taken an early morning tour to view its distinctive architecture of galleried frontages overlooking a series of dramatically situated bays and coves. At the Torre de Hercules lighthouse, in continuous use since Roman times, we able to watch National Geographic Explorer depart for her repositioning voyage around Cape Finisterre. We were met at the delightful fishing community of Muros which we had the opportunity to explore until late in the evening.
