Santiago de Compostela (Galicia)

Santiago de Compostela (also Saint James of Compostela) is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia. Located in the northwest region of Spain in the Province of A Coruña, it was the "European City of Culture" for the year 2000. The city's cathedral is the destination of the important medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St James (in Spanish the Camino de Santiago).

Way of St. James Pilgrimage

Per year, over 100,000 pilgrims on foot, bicycle, donkey, or horseback come from over a 100 countries to claim their certificate called a 'compostela', based on their pilgrim passport called a 'credencial', filled with stamps from the towns they passed along the route. The credencial proves they have followed the route formally recognized by the "Pilgrim Association of St. James." It is unknown how many more pilgrims travel the route per year, without using a pilgrim's passport (also known as a "compostela"), which is only given to those with a religious purpose.
Many of the Northern European routes to Santiago today follow the same trails described in the Codex Calixtinus. The 5th book of the Codex mentions the trails starting in Paris, Vézelay, Le Puy and Arles, which all come together in the Pyrenees to form the Camino Frances (i.e., the 'French route').
The Spanish portion of the Camino Frances is the most popular pilgrimmage route to Santiago, attracting more than 80,000 pilgrims yearly. Other popular routes are known as the Silver route from Sevilla or 'Via de Plata', and the Portuguese route or 'Camino Portugués'.

Galicia (Spain)

Galicia is a region in Spain that became a Spanish autonomous community in 1978. It is located in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. It shares borders with Portugal to the South and the communities of Castile and León and Asturias to the East.

Localization

History

The name Galicia comes from the Latin name Gallaecia, associated with the name of the ancient Celtic tribe that resided above the Douro river, the Gallaeci or Callaeci in Latin, and Kallaikoi in Greek (these tribes were mentioned by Herodotus).

Some sectors of public opinion (concerned to avoid any taint of perceived Castilian influence) favour the promotion of "Galiza" as an alternative spelling of the region's name in Galician. While the Royal Galician Academy has recently recognised this variant (identical to the region's name in Portuguese), it is not officially used or recognised by public bodies at a national or regional level.

Before the Roman invasion, a series of tribes lived in the region, having — according to Strabo, Pliny, Herodotus and others — a similar culture and customs. These tribes had a Celtic culture.

The region was first entered by the Roman legions under Decimus Junius Brutus in 137–136 BC. (Livy lv., lvi., Epitome); but the province was only superficially Romanized by the time of Augustus.

In the 5th century AD invasions, Galicia fell to the Suevi in 411, who formed a kingdom. In 584, the Visigothic King Leovigild invaded the Suebic kingdom of Galicia and defeated it, bringing it under Visigoth control. During the Moorish invasion of Spain (711-718), the Moors garrisoned Galicia, until driven out in 739 by Alfonso I of Asturias.

Flag

During the 9th and 10th centuries, the counts of Galicia gave fluctuating obedience to their nominal sovereign, and Normans/Vikings occasionally raided the coasts. The Towers of Catoira (see also Viking Festival) (Pontevedra) were built as a system of fortifications to stop Vikings raiding Santiago de Compostela.

In 1063, Ferdinand I of Castile and León divided his kingdom among his sons. Galicia was allotted to Garcia II of Galicia. In 1072, it was forcibly reannexed by Garcia's brother Alfonso VI of Castile, and from that time Galicia remained part of the kingdom of Castile and Leon, although under differing degrees of self-government.

The final episode of Galician independence was the dynastic conflict between Isabella of Castile and Xoana, called "a beltranexa" ("Daughter of Beltrán", and not to be confused with Joan the Mad). Queen Isabella, during her reign as queen of Castilla, made (the historically unproven) accusations upon her niece (Xoana) of being the bastard daughter of Beltrán and the former queen (hence the name Beltranexa). A political struggle ensued, and the Xoana-supporting nobles (most of the Galician aristocracy) lost; thus giving Isabel a free ticket to initiate the process she called "Doma y Castración del Reino de Galicia", that is, the "Taming and Castration of the Kingdom of Galicia" (sic)(Court Historian, Zurita).

Galician regionalist and federalist movements arose in the nineteenth century. From 1916 through the 1920s these developed into a full nationalist movement. After the second Spanish Republic was declared in 1931, Galicia became an autonomous region following a referendum. During the 1936–75 dictatorship of General Francisco Franco — himself a Galician from Ferrol — Galicia's statute of autonomy was annulled (as were those of Catalonia and the Basque provinces). Franco's regime also suppressed any official promotion of the Galician language, although its everyday use was never proscribed. During the last decade of Franco's rule, there was a renewal of nationalist feeling in Galicia.

Coat of arms

Following the transition to democracy after Franco's death in 1975, Galicia regained its status as an autonomous region within Spain with the Statute of Autonomy of 1981, which starts: "Galicia, historical nationality, is constituted as an Autonomous Community to access to its self-governement, in agreement with the Spanish Constitution and with the present Statute (...)". Varying degrees of nationalist or separatist sentiment are evident at the political level. The only nationalist party of any electoral significance, the Bloque Nacionalista Galego or BNG, is a conglomerate of left-wing parties and individuals that claims the Galician political status as a nation.

From 1990 to 2005, the region's government and parliament, the Xunta de Galicia, was presided over by the Partido Popular ('People's Party', Spain's main national conservative party) under Manuel Fraga, a former minister and ambassador under the Franco regime. In 2002, when the oil tanker Prestige sank and covered the Galician coast in oil, Fraga is said to have been unwilling to react. In the 2005 Galician elections, perhaps in response to this perceived lack of action, the People's Party lost its overall majority, while just remaining the largest party in the parliament. As a result, power passed to a coalition between the Partido dos Socialistas de Galicia (PSdeG) ('Galician Socialists' Party'), a regional sister-party of Spain's main socialdemocratic party, the Partido Socialista Obrero Español ('Spanish Socialist Workers Party') and the Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG). As the senior partner in the new coalition, the PSdeG nominated its leader, Emilio Perez Touriño, to serve as Galicia's new president, with Anxo Quintana, the leader of BNG as its vicepresident.

Language

The spoken languages are Galician (Galician: Galego), the local language derived from Latin, closely related to Portuguese, both being Galician-Portuguese languages, and Spanish, the only official language for more than four centuries (XVI - XIX). Since the end of the 20th century, the Galician language also has an official status, and both languages are taught in Galician schools. There is a broad consensus of support within the region for efforts to preserve the Galician language.

Linguistic map of the Galician language.

The Galician and Portuguese languages are derived from the early Galician-Portuguese (Galego-Português or Middle Ages Portuguese) language spoken in Galicia and north-of-Douro regions in Portugal, and are still considered by some Galician people to be two dialects of the same language (Galician-Portuguese or European Portuguese).

For some Galician people, the Galician and Portuguese languages began to diverge in the Middle Ages, a development hastened by political separation. Furthermore, there remain many similarities between Portuguese and Galician. Mutual intelligibility is good between Galicians and Portuguese speakers. In fact there is a public debate in Galicia about their own language and its relationship with Portuguese language. Nowadays, some people hold that the Galician language is an autonomous and new language, others maintain that Galician is a variant of the Portuguese language, such as Brazilian Portuguese.

Population

Note: The population of the City of A Coruña in 1900 was 43,971 meanwhile the population of the rest of the province including the City and Naval Station of nearby Ferrol as well as Santiago de Compostela was 653,556. It should be noted that A Coruña's great growth happened during aftermaths of the Spanish Civil War at the same speed as other major Galician cities, but it was the arrival of democracy in Spain after the death of Francisco Franco the moment when the City of Corunna left all the other Galician cities behind (i.e.: with the exception of Vigo of course).

The meteoric increase of population of the City of Corunna, the City of Vigo and to a lesser degree Santiago de Compostela and all the other major Galician Cities, during the years which follow the Spanish Civil War during the mid 20th century, can only be explained when we see the figures of the number of villages and hamlets of the four province which disappeared or nearly disappeared during the same period. We are talking here about an economic revolution and not so much to an explosion of births or a substantial increase in living standards which of course has happened too, but looking to the overall picture what has happened is that the fields have been abandon due to the introduction of new machinery and most of the population has moved to find jobs in the main cities increasing the number of people working in the Tertiary and Quaternary sectors.

Geography

• La Coruña
• Santiago
• Betanzos
• Mondoñedo
• Lugo
• Ourense
• Tuy

• La Coruña
• Lugo
• Ourense
• Pontevedra

The main cities are Vigo, A Coruña, Pontevedra, Lugo, Ferrol, Ourense, and Santiago de Compostela, the capital and archiepiscopal seat, and home of the shrine which gave rise to medieval Europe's most famous pilgrimage route, The Way of St James.

Provinces of Galicia

Geographically, an important feature of Galicia is the presence of many fjord-like indentations on the coast, estuaries that were drowned with rising sea levels after the ice age. These are called rías and are divided into the Rías Altas, and the Rías Baixas. The rias are important for fishing, and make the coast an important fishing area. The spectacular landscapes and wildness of the coast attract great numbers of tourists.

The coast of this green corner of the Iberian Peninsula is also known as the "A Costa do Marisco" (i.e.: "The Seafood Coast" in Galician).

Galicia has preserved much of its dense Atlantic forests where wildlife is commonly found. It is scarcely polluted, and its landscape composed of green hills, cliffs and rias is very different to what is commonly understood as Spanish landscape.

The Atlantic coast of Galicia

Inland, the region is less populated and suffers from migration to the coast and the major cities of Spain. There are few small cities (Ourense, Lugo, Verín, Monforte de Lemos, O Barco), and there are many small villages. The terrain is made up of several low mountain ranges crossed by many small rivers that are not navigable but have provided hydroelectric power from the many dams. Galicia has so many small rivers that it has been called the "land of the thousand rivers". The most important of the rivers are the Miño and the Sil, which has a spectacular canyon.

The mountains in Galicia are not high but have served to isolate the rural population and discourage development in the interior. There is a ski resort in Cabeza de Manzaneda (1700 m) in Ourense Province. The highest mountain is Trevinca (2 127 m) on the Ourense eastern border with León and Zamora provinces (Castilla y León).