Religion

Route 17 – San Marcos Chapel

Small and humble temple located on Monte do Gozo, the first place from which the towers of the cathedral of Compostela can be glimpsed. It is located 4.5 km from the city of Santiago. The first church erected in this emblematic enclave, of which hardly any news survives, was dedicated to the Holy Cross and was rebuilt in 1105 by order of the then bishop Diego Xelmírez, who arranged for an annual procession to be held on St. Mark's Day.
The aim was to provide this symbolic place, where pilgrims divided the city of Santiago for the first time by looking to the west, with a space for worship. It is possible that next to it was the famous humiliator of the mountain, of which there are no remains today. There, the pilgrims deposited a stone as a sign of permanence and gratitude for having reached the gates of the sacred enclosure of Compostela.

Route 16 – Casa de Europa stone cross

On a pleasant walk through the garden we can also enjoy a cruceiro by Francisco Asorey, ornamental statues and different areas of benches and seats in which to rest, read a book or simply enjoy the landscape and dream what it would be like to live in a place as wonderful as the Casa de Europa.

Route 17 – San Lázaro church

Modernist style temple built in 1924 by the architect J. López Rego. A small nave with pointed arches, with a buttress and a posterior sacristy, define the interior space. It has a side door for direct access from the street. It is made of granite quarry on the facades, its main elements and the contour of the vanes, the rest is of ashlar. The bell tower with two bells ends the main facade.

Route 16 – Carme de Abaixo Chapel

This classicist baroque temple has a single rectangular floor plan, a gabled roof and a circular lantern in the center. It was built between 1760 and 1773 over a previous small chapel. The original plans were by the architect Lucas Ferro Caveiro, but during construction the imprint of the Compostelan Baroque was lost, resulting in a work of a very rural nature. In 1867, Baltasar Ferreiro added a new plebisterium, so the original became a transept. The facade, in granite masonry, consists of three vertical bodies framed by pilasters and three horizontal bodies: the first with a linteled doorway, the second with a hollow flanked by columns and topped with a semicircular arch that includes the image of the Virgin and above a shield framed with a semicircular pediment. The tower-belfry crowns the set, of quadrangular plant and decorated and finished off with pinnacles and volutes. In the interior, the main altar, of baroque style, follows the model of those made by Miguel Ferro Cavero.

Route 16 – Carme de Abaixo Bridge

Ponte do Carme de Abaixo with vegetation

Also known as the Archbishop’s Bridge in old documents, it’s a double-sloped bridge that crosses the Sarela river. It was built by Ventura Valado with a budget of 8000 reals, following the project of José Santos Calderón and finished in 1760. It’s found in the neighborhood of Carme de Abaixo, at the exit of Santiago towards Fisterra, in Saint James’ Way.

Route 14 – San Pedro Church

Walking down San Pedro Street, following the path that leads the French Way pilgrims to Porta do Camiño in the opposite direction, we find this neoclassical church from the XVIII century. It maintains some remainders from the primitive construction of the old monastery of San Pedro de Fóra, from the XII century, upon which the new brickwork was built.
Remains of burials were discovered in its atrium, very probably from monks and pilgrims from the XII to the XV centuries buried in the old Benedictine monastery, which provided hostelry services to the apostle’s devotees far before the Catholic Monarchs’ Inn was built.
Inside the temple stand out the sculptures of Ferreiro.

Route 14 – Sar Collegiate Church

Built in the XII century on the bank of the Sar river it is, next to the Cathedral, the church that keeps the most of its original Romanesque stonework.
On the outside, the hardy flying buttresses built between the XVII and XVIII centuries to protect the northern walls and avoid their collapse are particularly noteworthy: whether it was because of a technical error during construction, because of the daring elevation of the lateral naves, because of the sliding of the unstable terrain, which is frequently flooded by the river, on which the church seats, or because of the will of those who worked in its construction, the interior walls and columns are visibly leaning, which gives it a unique appeal and forced the remake of the barrel vault in the XVI century.
The interior impresses everyone who visits thanks to the tilt of the columns towards the lateral naves, which causes a sensation of instability. The baptismal font, to the right of the main door, is an interesting archeological piece from the XII century.
Through the sacristy one reaches the cloisters, the only one in the city in Romanesque style. Only one of the wings remains, everything else was created during the XVII and XVIII centuries. A large collection of archeological and liturgical pieces are on display inside.
The Collegiate Church is also home to the Collegiate Church of Sar Museum, founded in 1975, where pieces of great historical and documentary value, such as the temple’s foundational scroll, can be found. The archeological section is made up of a series of pieces from the old Romanesque cloisters, done by Master Mateo or his disciples.

Route 6 – Santa Lucía hermitage

In the parish of San Cristóbal de Eixo. This small temple with a classicist facade and rectangular floor plan with an attached sacristy is part of a heritage ensemble that includes a fountain, a cross, a mill, and a well-preserved section of the ancient Royal Road, along which the Camino de Santiago (Saint James’ way) passes.

Route 12 – San Fernando Church

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.

Route 12 – Pilar Chapel

Set in Santiago’s most emblematic park, the Alameda, next to the U-shaped boulevard known as Paseo da Ferradura, is this Baroque-style temple. It has a Latin cross ground plan with a transept and a high altar.