The end of the Camino — where 350,000 pilgrims a year arrive having walked across France and Spain, and the Cathedral's giant incense burner swings the length of the nave on cables thick as ship's rope
Santiago de Compostela is a city of 100,000 in Galicia, northwest Spain — medieval Christendom's third holiest city after Jerusalem and Rome, and the terminus of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage network. Its UNESCO World Heritage historic centre is built in grey Galician granite; the Cathedral of Santiago (11th–18th century), built over the supposed tomb of the Apostle James, is one of Europe's great Romanesque-Baroque monuments. Over 350,000 pilgrims complete a Camino route each year, arriving to embrace the jewelled silver statue of Santiago behind the high altar.
A hermit's discovery of bones identified as the Apostle James in 830 CE transformed a remote Galician hilltop into medieval Europe's most important pilgrimage destination. Bishop Diego Gelmírez oversaw construction of the Romanesque cathedral from 1075, and the 12th-century Codex Calixtinus formalised the Camino Francés pilgrimage route from the Pyrenees. The Baroque Obradoiro facade (completed 1750) by Casas y Novoa is among the defining monuments of Spanish Baroque; the Botafumeiro — a 54kg silver-plated incense burner — has been swung across the nave transept since at least the 15th centur…