Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela is the capital of Galicia, in the province of A Coruña at the north-west corner of the Iberian Peninsula. The city grew around the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the cathedral, as the destination of the Way of St James, a leading Catholic pilgrimage route since the ninth century. The Old Town was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. The climate is very mild for its latitude, and wet: granite streets, arcades and a great deal of rain. Arriving on foot rather than by road is what the place is arranged around.