route 12 Trail through the Cidade da Cultura and Alameda Park

The San Fernando Parish was founded in 1964 in the so-called Ensanche (expansion area) of Santiago de Compostela. Cardinal Archbishop Fernando Quiroga Palacios was a driving force in the creation of this parish, as it was his initiative to build a church in this area in expansion of the city, dedicating it to his patron saint.
At that time, the city was experimenting an accelerated growth process, especially due to the University of Santiago and the settling of new professionals. Thus, the city had to grow beyind its borders and occupy agricultural terrains and other fields located southwest from the urban center.
This process lasted several decades, but from midway through the XX century, the San Fernando Parish became the spiritual, aid, social and formative reference for several Compostellan generations.
The project was developed was a modern creation in line with the lithurgical-pastoral program of the II Vatican Council. To achieve this, Andrés Fernández Albalat-Lois, one of the most remarkable contemporaneous Galician architects, was hired. He was part of the modern movement and had an important role in the Galician cultural sphere during the second half of the XX century.
The execution of the project went on for years because of economic reasons. As a result, the church was inaugurated 25 years after the creation of the parish. The temple is a big, curved, open space where concrete plays a big role, with two defined areas. One of them, more intimate, is meant for safekeeping the Saint and for oration, while the other, of great spaciousness, is used for liturgical celebration.