Santiago de Compostela

Historia

Santiago de Compostela, commonly known as Santiago, is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain.The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the city's cathedral, as destination of the Way of St. James, a leading Catholic pilgrimage route originated in the. In 1985 the city's Old Town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.ToponymSantiago is the local Galician evolution of Vulgar Latin Sanctus Iacobus "Saint James". According to legend, Compostela derives from the Latin Campus Stellae (i.e., "field of the star"); it seems unlikely, however, that this phrase could have yielded the modern Compostela under normal evolution from Latin to Medieval Galician.Other etymologies derive the name from Latin compositum, local Vulgar Latin Composita Tella, meaning "burial ground", or simply from Latin compositella, meaning "the well-composed one". Other sites in Galicia share this toponym, akin to Compostilla in the province of León. Compostela, camp of stars, long before christianity appeared in the region, the area was part of a pilgrimage that came from France to this site following the stars.