In the Compostelas program there are four groups of approximately 6-7 people (I think we will ultimately all be 7, but at the moment there are two students missing). Two of the groups are focusing on the problem of access to the City of Culture that sits just south of the old city of Sanitiago. That is not the project I’m working on and since it is fraught with subtlties, I’m not even going to try to go into it here.

The project I’m working on focuses on the last 12 km of the Camino de Santiago from the airport into the old city and to the cathedral itself.

So, a bit of orientation for those of you who aren’t up to speed about what Santiago de Compostela is all about.

Sometime about 813 AD a boat showed up on the Western coast of Galicia with some human remains that were purported to be those of St. James (the Greater) the apostle. The remains were taken to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela (which obviously had a different name at that time) and placed in the crypt there. As would be appropriate for a place that holds the remains of one of the 12 apostles, Santiago subsequently became a major pilgrimage site. It was a popular destination through the middle ages and then its popularity waned but a small number of pilgrims continued to visit. About 1993 the popularity of the pilgrimate to Santiago took off and since then it has become a major destination. If you are interested, there is TONS on the internet about the pilgrimage, called the Camino de Santiago, and a movie called “The Way” was released last year about it.

The Camino de Santiago (called St. James’ Way in English or “the Camino” for short) can be accessed by a number of routes, but by far the most popular is the one that begins in the southwest corner of France called the Camino Frances. For the purposes of our project, we are focusing on that piece, although it is important to know that there are many other routes. The Camino is particularly popular in the summer when travel is easy and there is special incentive to end the pilgrimage around July 25 (St. James’ Day). (This is why Santiago is currently crawling with tourists.)

Back to the project…

The city of Santiago has come to the Compostelas program to try to improve the last 12 km of the Camino Frances. This portion of the route starts at about the airport, travels about 6-7 km through the outskirts of town (that technically might be called suburban, but by my standards seem more like small semi-rural towns) and into the new portion of town and finally into the old town and the square in front of the cathedral.

All that is fine and good, except that no one seems to think that there is any real problem with the last 12 km of the Camino. The pilgrims are a bit disappointed, but apparently it is about the same as entering any of the larger cities on the route, and once at the Cathedral, everyone is so happy to have arrived that it doesn’t really matter.

My team and I walked from the nearest hostel (aubergue) into town along the main route of the Camino last night and although it’s a bit drab in places, there are no obvious issues that seem to require intervention on an architectural scale. So, I think at this time I’m going to focus on what happens just after the pilgrims arrive. If all goes well, I’ll post my problem statement tomorrow that will include my thinking on the project and what needs to be done.

There are several photos in the set that show the main points from the edge of the old town into the Praza do Obrodoirio (in front of the cathedral) and a couple at the very end that show the location that I’m thinking my intervention will occupy. (More on that in the next few days.)

I’ve tried to condense a TON of information into a very short post, so if you have questions or if I completely missed including some basic information, please post a comment and I’ll try to answer.

More tomorrow!