Discover Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela:  an overview written by Lucía and Begoña 

All photos courtesy of Lucía's sister Alba.

(Congratulations to these two Basic 2 students for using their English so well!)

Santiago de Compostela is a small city in Galicia (Northwest Spain). It's very famous for its 12^th- century Romanic Cathedral. Since its construction the city has become very important for pilgrims all over world. It is a World Heritage site since 1985 because it has many well-conserved monuments, and in 2000 it was named European Capital of Culture. It's also known for its University which is over 500 years old. So, it's also a young city because there are a lot of students, around 30.000 enrolled every year.

In Santiago de Compotela you can see different places and monuments:

- Cathedral and Obradoiro, Quintana, Praterías, Inmaculada and Mazarelos squares.

- Main historics streets: Rúa do Vilar", Rúa do Franco, Rúa Nova

- Green zones and beautiful lookout points: The Alameda Park, San Domingo de Bonaval, Monte Pedroso, Belvís

- Museums like Museo do Pobo Galego, CGAC (Contemporany Art Museum), and the Nature Historic Museum.

Santiago has lots of traditional food like Tarta de Santiago (Santiago cake), empanadas, grelos (greens), chorizo (sausage), and fresh fish and seafood. You can enjoy this food in any local restaurant in the Rúa do Franco which is the traditional street to go for tapas. Or you can buy it yourself at our famous open street market called the Praza de Abastos.

There are a lot of bars, restaurants and pubs and there are some concerts every week, The best day for partying is Thursday, an old student tradition. Some traditional famous pubs in Santiago are the Borriquita de Belén, Casa das Crechas, Paraiso perdido and Modus Vivendi.

Folk, xota, and muiñeira music is traditional in Galicia. In the summer there are many street musicians, but in the winter not so many beacuse it rains so much. But it is said that in Santiago de Compostela "the rain itself is art".