route 12 Trail through the Cidade da Cultura and Alameda Park

In the IX century, bishop Teodomiro of Iria Flavia identifies a Roman shrine as apostle Saint James’ tomb. Due to this discovery, King Alfonso II the Chaste orders the edification of a modest temple around this pagan construction. The increase in pilgrimages and a certain degree of stability after Arab attacks lead to a new construction that started in the year 1075, during Alfonso VI’s reign and under the direction of Archbishop Diego de Peláez. Thus begins the building of the Romanesque cathedral that continues during Diego Gelmírez’s time as Archbishop, and that won’t stop until becoming the great temple that can be seen today.
The cathedral is built in granite ashlar with slab roofs in the same material. Romanesque construction with a Latin cross ground plan, longitudinal arm and a three-nave transept, an ambulatory in the chevet and a tribune that runs along the entire perimeter; there are also lateral chapels that are orderly positioned along the entire temple and possess an space with their own individuality, only remaining from the Romanesque time some from the ambulatory.
Lateral naves covered with edged vaults, a central nave with a stilted barrel vault and supported by transverse ribs and a quarter barrel triforium. The Acibechería façade is Neoclassical (Ventura Rodríguez and Lois Monteagudo). The Praterías façade is Romanesque and a paradigm of medieval iconography. The Puerta Santa (Holy Door), Baroque (1611), is only opened on holy years. The Obradoiro façade (Fernando de Casas Novoa, 1738-1750) is a combination of stone and glass, with the large window in the central part as a highlight, among the largest prior to the Industrial Revolution.