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The "traslatio" of Santiago, in a relief in the Municipal Chamber of Padrón

Every city has its origin in some cause or pretext: natural or human resources, crossroads or communication nodes; power, oil, ports… most of them seem to have been arbitrarily placed by nature.

Compostela, on the other hand, was founded for a different and very particular reason: the fact that a man was buried there, in a place that had previously been nothing more than an abandoned necropolis, on top of a wooded hill called Libredón, with some enigmatic ruins in it that later turned out to be a primitive Christian temple. According to tradition, the apostle's remains arrived by sea from Jaffa to Iria Flavia, an ancient settlement at the confluence of the Sar and Ulla rivers, and from there to the necropolis on an ox-drawn cart, centuries before they were discovered. by a hermit named Paio on a distant day in the year 813.

Ever since it was discovered that one of those ancient tombs housed none other than the remains of James, son of Zebedee, the apostle who had been martyred in Jerusalem in the year 44, the tomb has received an incessant tribute, and around it was built first a small altar, then a discreet monastery and settlement, the growth of which spurred a royal prerogative which, in feudal times, granted freedom to any man who had remained within the city walls for 40 days without being claimed as a vassal by some lord. Many things have happened since then to reach the city we know today, built around a cathedral that surrounds an ancient tomb. A long and yet relatively ancient history, with battles against Vikings, Arabs and French, a five-hundred-year-old university, and protracted lawsuits to preserve its status as the holiest city in Western Europe.

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The urn with the remains of the apostle

Few cities like Compostela can be so sure of the exact reason why they are here now. And there it is still, the tomb of the Apostle Santiago the Greater, his remains and his two faithful companions, Athanasius and Theodore, in a silver urn carved in the crypt under the main altar of the cathedral.

Visiting the apostle's tomb is one of those inescapable pilgrim rituals in Compostela; Leaving aside the debates about the historical truth and the beliefs of each one, the sepulcher of Santiago is a spiritual and cultural symbol with universal value.

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