On Monday, Mike and I ventured about an hour away to Santiago de Compostela, which is the capitol city of our region, Galicia. It is also, according to Wikipedia, a Holy city where pilgrims flock from around the world. There’s even a series of trails called The Way of St. James (or El Camino de Santiago) that travels hundreds of miles for pilgrims to walk their way to Santiago.
We drove there and didn’t do the whole pilgrim thing.
{Disclaimer: I am not Catholic or religious, so I’m looking at this church from a purely tourist-attraction standpoint, not a religious one}
The day was pretty bleak and rainy, and I wore just about the worst outfit ever for walking around a wet city: a maxi dress that I had to hold up constantly so it wouldn’t drag the ground. I thought wearing a dress was pretty much a requirement for these things out of respect, but of course people were in jeans and such when we got there. Oh well.
I still looked awesome.
The outside of the church was pretty grimy, I must admit. I thought that a church that was considered such an attraction would be better cared for/cleaned. It was still very impressive though, as was the square surrounding it.
Every once in awhile, we could hear great shouts from Pilgrims who had made it into the square after their long journey (they must travel 100 km on foot or 200km on bike in order for them to earn the Compostela certificate, which means that they’re super awesome pilgrims, I think). It was so interesting to see the joy on these peoples’ faces as they completed their long journey–group hugs, kissing the ground, taking photos, bending down, winded because I’m sure they had to have sped up in the home stretch.
I might look like I’m pouting about the rain, but I’m really just observing the square. And maybe pouting about the rain a little bit. But isn’t my umbrella cute? It has sheep all in a line, and then the blue guy is a wolf in sheeps’ skin. hehe, it’s kinda evil.
Inside, the long aisle to the pulpit shows a shiny gold room of wonderment. It was an incredible contrast to the rest of the church, which was very gothic and grey.
There were little alcoves all around the church with different stories depicted.
The ceiling was very cool–this picture doesn’t do it justice.
After we walked around the perimeter of the church, we noticed that there was a long, long line forming for something. It looked like everyone got to go into the golden pulpit, so Mike and I stood in this long, long line:
It wound all the way around the center of the church. When we got to the doorway where we were supposed to enter this mystery attraction (well, it was a mystery to us, but other people probably knew what they’d be seeing) there was a sign saying no photographs. There was even a priest stationed inside this area to enforce the rule, so I couldn’t sneak any in.
I’ll let you in on what it was though: It was about a 3′x3′ space that was elaborately decorated in gold, and in the middle of the space there was a Jesus statue, his face pointed out toward the pulpit. It seemed like the thing to do when you got up to him was to kiss the back of his head. We didn’t do that though, probably to the extreme disapproval of the priest sitting there, and walked out of the 3 foot space. Mike said “I’ll bet you’re disappointed.” Haha, I was. I totally thought that we’d get access to the golden pulpit. Notsomuch.
After the Jesus statue, we went into a little room with a silver casket that is supposed to represent Saint James and two of his disciples: Saint Theodorus and Saint Athanasius.
Okay, so…I guess I’m just not one of those people who’s super impressed by churches. The Duomo was interesting when we went there, and Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia was ridiculous, though we didn’t want to pay the 30 Euro each to get in. We admired from the outside.
I think that I appreciate the buildings as something beautiful and architecturally interesting, but it pretty much stops there. Mike, who has seen many churches during his travels, has said that this church didn’t make his top five, so I suppose I’d only recommend going to check it out if it means something to you and your religion.
Do you like to see old churches when you travel? What’s the most impressive church you’ve seen?
