Santiago de Compostela

The site was a Roman cemetery by the 4th century and was settled by the Suebi in the 5th, but the city itself begins with a discovery. Between 818 and 842, a hermit named Pelagius, guided by strange lights, led Bishop Theodemar of Iria to a tomb that the bishop declared to be that of the apostle James, son of Zebedee. King Alfonso II of Asturias built a church on the spot, a pilgrim settlement grew around it, and by the 10th century it was called Compostela — from a Latin term for a burial ground, although popular tradition prefers Campus Stellae, the "field of the star".

In 997 al-Mansur sacked the town, sparing only the apostle's tomb. Rebuilt after the raid, Compostela began its great cathedral in 1075; under Bishop Diego Gelmírez it became an archbishopric in the 12th century and a magnet for pilgrims from all over Europe, its legends recorded in the 12th-century Codex Calixtinus. The Catholic Monarchs founded a royal pilgrims' hospital on the Obradoiro in 1492, the university followed in the early 16th century, and Baroque façades and monasteries remade the city in granite.

French troops sacked Santiago during the Napoleonic Wars, and the apostle's relics were hidden and lost for nearly a century; in 1884 Pope Leo XIII accepted their authenticity. After Franco's death the city became the capital of Galicia, and in 1985 its old town became a World Heritage Site. A large campaign for the Holy Year of 1993 revived the Camino, and pilgrim numbers have risen ever since. In July 2013 a high-speed train derailed on a bend near the city, killing 79 people.

Santiago exists because of pilgrimage, and the Camino still shapes daily life. Walkers with backpacks and scallop shells arrive in the Obradoiro all day, and on major religious occasions the 80-kilogram Botafumeiro censer is swung across the nave by a team of mauve-robed tiraboleiros. The feast of Saint James on 25 July is the biggest day of the year, and Holy Years — when it falls on a Sunday — bring the largest crowds. The cathedral's Obradoiro façade even appears on Spain's 1, 2 and 5 cent coins.

It is also a university town and the seat of Galicia's government, and Galician is widely spoken: in 2008 about 21 per cent of residents always spoke Galician and another 31 per cent mostly did. The Romantic poet Rosalía de Castro is among the city's best-known figures, and by the Alameda park a pair of statues, the Two Marías, recalls two sisters who paraded the streets in colourful clothes in the years after the Civil War.

Students keep the nightlife lively in both the old and new towns. Sport is represented by Obradoiro CAB in basketball and SD Compostela in football, and the city's bars and taverns are where locals and pilgrims meet over a glass of wine and a plate of octopus.

About 101,000 people lived in the municipality in 2025, and the metropolitan area had about 179,000 in 2019. The economy still depends heavily on public administration — the Xunta de Galicia has its headquarters here — together with cultural tourism, higher education and newer industries such as timber processing, vehicles and telecommunications.

The newer town south of the old centre, beyond the Alameda park, is a district of flats, shops and offices, while the old town holds the cathedral, much of the university and the pilgrim trade. Pilgrim numbers have risen year after year since the 1990s, with more than 200,000 completing the route in an ordinary year, and they bring both income and crowding to the old streets.

The rhythm of the day is shaped by the weather: with some of the highest rainfall in Spain, umbrellas and arcades are part of life, and the sunny days of summer fill the squares and terraces. Evenings are spent on the paseo through the Alameda and in the taverns of Rúa do Franco and the new town.

Galicia's seafood dominates the table, and octopus is the city's signature: polbo á feira, fair-style octopus, is a traditional Galician dish, and Santiago's taverns serve it alongside shellfish, fish and tapas. The main eating strip runs along Rúa do Franco and Rúa da Raíña, two alleys south of the cathedral, and the Mercado de Abastos, a short walk east, is the city's main food market.

Pimientos de Padrón, peppers named after the town of Padrón near the city, are a favourite tapa — some are hot and some are not, as a Galician saying warns. Tetilla, a cow's-milk cheese moulded into a peaked cone, is a common part of Galician meals and is often served as a dessert.

The sweet that everyone takes home is the tarta de Santiago, an almond cake from the Middle Ages and the Camino. It is made of ground almonds, eggs and sugar, sometimes on a pastry base, and decorated with powdered sugar around the stencilled outline of the Cross of Saint James. Since 2010 it has had protected status in the European Union: to carry the name it must be made in Galicia and contain at least a third almonds.