San Francisco was founded by Poverello of Asis at the beginning of the thirteenth century. And the Herradura, a beautiful place for surveying the old part of Santiago.
The Faxeira gate used to be the main entrance into Santiago. The Porta do Camiño (Entrance Gate) or Francígena, the entrance for pilgrims... we get into the old Compostela by the only one of the seven doors that have resisted the pass of time: Mazarelos. According to the Code of Calixtus the wonderful Bacchus, the wine from the Ribeiro and Ulla, entered the city from this door.
The University of Santiago dates from the beginning of the sixteenth century. The style of university city is given by the old buildings that existed a long time ago that still today function as the offices of the University and the thousands of young men and women that give Santiago a different character by the contrast of their youth and the stone severity of the environment.
The traveller can have a clear idea that the city is waiting for him. Its big or small shops, its hotels... its administrative and political role as the capital of a two-million people community, its wonderful gastronomy... is cosmopolitan aspect and the unchangeable character of the old city.
The Rúa Nueva (New Street) was already called like that in the twelfth century... Rúa Nueva and Villar are the most characteristic streets in Santiago... both of them meet at the Plaza del Toral (Toral square) through the Palacio de los Marqueses de Bendaña where there is a statue of Atlas on top holding the world.
This is the great square of Santiago, called Obradoiro. Everything in Santiago and also Galicia itself revolves round this magnificent square. And what is more, Europe is tied to Galicia by the Compostela Pilgrims way, which ends here in Santiago in the stone of Obradoiro.
1/5
3/5