Saint-Jacques-of-Compostelle
Saint-Jacques-with-Compostelle ( Santiago de Compostela in Galician and Castilian) is a town of Spain located in the province of Corogne. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, and for this reason seat of the Xunta de Galicia (regional government autonomous) and of the Parliament of the community. The city counted 93.273 inhabitants in 2002.
The Pèlerinage of Saint-Jacques-of-Compostelle on the supposed tomb of holy Jacques is, with Jerusalem and Rome, one of most important of Christendom to the Moyen-âge. Practically disappeared at the XIXe century, he knows a renewal of favor since the last decade of XXe.
The Cathédrale of Saint-Jacques-of-Compostelle is a church of the Romance type, but it was increased and modified with other styles.
The legend
About the year 813, according to the tradition reported in the “ Concordia de Antealtares ” written towards 1077, lived close to the church of San Felix a hermit named Pelayo (Peeling.) The presence of the body of Jacques saint was announced to him by an angel, whereas at the same time the faithful ones of the church were informed by divine gleams.
The bishop of Iria-Flavia (today Padrón), Théodomir, after having checked the existence of this revelation, carried out the faithful ones to the place indicated “campus stellarum” and discovered the covered marble tomb there. “Campus stellarum”, the “field of stars”, from where Compostelle.
In fact, it would be more probably the deformation of the words: “compostum”, “compositum” or “compostellum”, meaning “funerary finishes” or “tomb”.
The “ Concordia de Antealtares ” is the agreement made between the monastery San Pelayo and the bishop Diego Pelàez whereas a new building - that which we know today - will be built with the same site.
History
The site even of the city was a place of worship druidic. The Romans established a mausoleum. It is supposed that a city existed and that it was called Asseconia.
The city appears to have been the interior center of the many small Galician ports, like Padrón, in the past Iria-Flavia, where slackened the trade or fishing vessels. A tradition of sacrality was already established in this area, because it was believed that Padrón had crowned stones.
It was certainly christianized of Ier in IIIe century then forgotten, following Roman persecutions against the Christians.
It reappears into 813, after the “discovery” of the body of the Jacques apostle the Major one. The small agglomeration of Compostelle became a city at the beginning of XIe century.
Starting from this date, the Spanish dynasty regards the relics of Jacques saint as his palladium, and the saint like the guard of Spain vis-a-vis the Moslem invaders. In 866, Alphonse III the Great fact of Saint-Jacques-of-Compostelle one évêché. A cathedral is inaugurated there with glare into 899.
The radiation of the worship of Jacques saint strongly contributed to crystallize the work of the Reconquista; the war cry against the Moors is “¡ Santiago will cierra España there! ” (“Holy Jacques and attacks Spain! ”).
When the royal family links itself by marriage with that of Burgundy, protective of the monks of Cluny, the pilgrimage of Compostelle, under the influence of the latter, widespread in all Europe, becomes universal.
Then open the “way of Saint-Jacob”, marked out basilicas of devotion like Chartres, Conques or Puy. Around these roads developed several cycles of accounts (legends, chronicles, etc), hawked by the pilgrims during their long voyage. This international pilgrimage makes it possible to the Spanish sovereigns to recruit many knights for Reconquista.
If Saint-Jacob were not conquered by the Moors, it was however taken and plundered into 997 by Muhammad ibn Abî Amir known as el-Mansour, Al-Manzor in Spanish, the victorious one in Arabic, war leader of the caliph de Cordoue Hicham II. Before setting fire to the basilica, it makes tear off the doors and the bells, that Christian prisoners transport until Cordoue, where they are stored in the large mosque. Only the tomb of the apostle Jacques the Major one, companion of the prophet Jesus was not touched.
Consternation was large in Christendom. The powerful order of Cluny organized the helps in all the Christian occident. The event was to strike imaginations durably: they are these same bells as other prisoners, Moslems this time, will transport until Tolède, with the catch of Cordoue by Ferdinand III, king de Castille and of Leon, in 1236.
A Romance church was built there in 1075. The city was high with the row of episcopal see by the pope Urbain II in 1095. Its first bishop was a clunisien.
Calixte II makes Saint-Jacques-with-Compostelle (of which his/her brother Raymond of Burgundy is King), a Holy City of the same order as Jerusalem and Rome and makes build with his/her brother the Cathédrale of Saint-Jacques-of-Compostelle. He causes the writing of the Codex Calixtinus to ensure the devotion the Apôtre Christ, St Jacques Major the, come évangéliser the Roman Empire until Saint-Jacques-with-Compostelle with the Ier century and whose holy Reliques will rest in the new cathedral. He ensures the promotion of the Pèlerinage of Saint-Jacques-to-Compostelle in all the Europe.
In 1120 a Castilian, Diego Gelmírez, was named archbishop and legate, it competed with the archbishop of Tolède.
The city and its centers of interests
Santiago, in its medieval wall, as Aimery Picaud saw it and such as it remained during centuries, had the shape of a slightly tilted heart towards the west. If there remains of very rare vestiges of its enclosure, its camber remains perfectly drawn. One can follow it starting from Puerta del Camino or Carries France, where the martyrdom known as rises of “Homo Santo”.
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the city seen by Aimery Picaud in the Guide of the Pilgrim.
Between two rivers of which one is called Sar and the other Sarela, the town of Compostelle rises; Sar is with the East, between the mount of the Joy and the city; Sarela in Occident.
The city counts seven doors or entries. The first is called door of France; the second, carries of Peña; the third, the door Below the brothers; the fourth, carries of Saint-Pilgrim; the fifth, carries Fougeraie S which leads to the “Petronus”; the sixth, carries of “Susannis”; the seventh, carries of the “Macerelli” by which the invaluable liquor of Bacchus enters the city.
Demography
Religious buildings
- churches by Aimery Picaud in the Guide of the Pilgrim.
In this city, there are ten churches whose first is that of the very glorious Jacques apostle, wire of Zébédée, which, located in the middle of the city, resplendit of glory; the second, high in the honor of the happy Pierre apostle is an abbey of monks located near the way of France; the third, Saint-Michel, called Cistern; the fourth, high in the honor of saint Martin, bishop, is known as of Pinario; it is also an abbey of monks; the fifth, from the Holy Trinity, receives the burial of the pilgrims; the sixth, dedicated to holy Suzanne, virgin, is close to the road of the “Petronus”, the seventh with Felix saint, martyr; the eighth with saint Benoit; the ninth with saint Peeling, martyr, is behind the basilica of Saint-Jacob; the tenth, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is behind the Saint-Jacob church and has an entry in this basilica between the furnace bridge of Nicolas saint and that of the Holy Cross.
El Convento de San Paio de Antealtares
Founded in IXe century to shelter the relics of Jacques saint from now on to the cathedral, it is one of the oldest monasteries of the city.
El Monasterio de San Martín Pinario
The Monastery of Saint Martin's day Pinario is an old monastery the Benedictine, largest of Galicia. The current building, most important from the city after the cathedral, dates from the XVIIe century, includes/understands a church of XVIe century. Its frontage, made up like a retable plateresque and preceded by a staircase with double flight, gives on charming small Plaza de San Martín.
The interior strikes by the extent of the nave single, arched of a cradle with boxes and lit by a lantern without drum, with the Byzantine mode. The retable of the high altar, of the churrigueresque style most exuberant, was drawn by the great architect Casas there Novoa (1730). To notice the two pulpits baroques with the sounding-boards in the shape of double bulb. A main staircase under an elegant cupola leads to three cloisters (XVIe - XVIIIe century) of which that of Processions.
One leaves on the place Inmaculada where the frontage of the convent chooses the colossal order, of large doric columns grouped per pairs spring ground with crowning.
El Monasterio de San Pelayo and the Museum of Sacred art
The monastery of San Pelayo was founded at the origin by Alphonse II the Pure one (759 - king of Asturies into 791 - 842), but the current building, somewhat austere, goes back to XVIIe and XVIIIe centuries. One on the sides of the building skirts Plaza de Quintana. Inside, it is necessary to be delayed on the Furnace bridge of the Apostle, out of marble and of a great sobriety, which passes to be devoted by the disciples of the Jacques apostle. The small museum of Sacred art (Museo de Arte Sacro) also deserves a visit.
In the Vault of the monastery of San Pelayo, Virgen of the 0, Galician representation of the Virgin of the Annunciation.
Iglesia Santa María del Sar
The Holy church Marie of Sar, located in the suburbs of the city, one reaches it by the Hold Castron d' Ouro.
This church of XIIe century strikes outside by its buttresses which were added to XIIIe century. The power of the latter will not appear superfluous when one observes, inside, seizing it discharge of the pillars under the action of the pushes exerted by the vault.
Cloister which accompanied it, it remains only the wing leant with the church, whose geminated arcades, decorated with flowers and foliages, are of a great elegance.
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