Day 41 - Santiago de Compostela

 

My last day in Santiago. I had a number of sightseeing sights I wanted to see;

·        the sculpture on the hill - Monte do Gozo: glimpse of the Cathedral Towers, where the figures look down on Santiago. I had missed it on my journey in, nine days ago, and wanted to retrace my steps and see it for myself.

  • ·        The Pilgrim museum (right by the Cathedral)
  • ·        I wanted to attend the pilgrim mass again, and hopefully see the Botafumeiro for the second time
  • ·        I had a tour booked at 4pm, to see the Pórtico de la Gloria, which is in the main entrance to the cathedral, but it is no longer used, in an effort to protect the sculptures

I set off straight after breakfast, for Monte do Gozo. It’s about five files there and back and the first decent walk for a few days. I made it up to the park and couldn’t find the sculpture anywhere. I asked a lady and she couldn’t understand me, so I kept looking. I should have realised that they need to have a view over the city which would have made it easier to find. Eventually I saw them across the other side of the park, went over and had a good look at them. I like them and think they are lovely sculptures.

When I got back into the city, I went to the cathedral in time for the pilgrim’s mass. The trouble was, there was a huge queue, and I know if I had joined the end of it, I wasn’t going to get in. I went to the front of the queue just to double check it was going in the cathedral. It was, so I turned to go away and then I thought, I’d go in anyway and just joined the queue near the door.

For some reason, I enjoyed the service more today. Perhaps it was because I went up for communion? There was no Botafumeiro, but I wasn’t too disappointed as I had seen it yesterday.

After lunch in my room, I went to the pilgrim museum. I was a lovely modern building with lots of exhibits about the history of the pilgrimage from the 11th century and looking at other pilgrimages around the world and why people do them. One of the reasons some had to do the Camino de Santiago, was to make amends for the crimes they had committed!


My last tourist visit was a pre booked visit to the entrance arch of the cathedral. It is an amazing sculpture depicting Christ the king on the throne, James the apostle, the 12 disciples, angels, animals etc. They have recently been restored it and they are certainly worth looking at. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us take any photographs, but if you use the link above or google it, you will get a sense of what it looks like.

So, I think that’s me done. I will go out for dinner this evening and then leave for the airport just after breakfast tomorrow morning. I fly from Santiago airport to Stanstead in the UK, and then catch the train home via London.

 

Comments

  1. Lyn22 October 2021 at 17:43

    I love those statues!
    See you later!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Barbara23 October 2021 at 09:18

    There is an amazing replica of the portico at the V&A museum - I remember seeing it years ago on a student trip with the OU. It was commissioned along with other pieces mainly as a teaching aid for art and architectural students who couldn’t afford to go and study the real thing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Barbara23 October 2021 at 09:18

    https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/conservation-of-portico-de-la-gloria

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MartinV23 October 2021 at 20:03

      Oh, thanks Barbara, that’s really interesting and thanks for the link

      Delete

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