The Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago). Basilica Project | Documentary Part 4

The Way of Saint James (Camino de Santiago) is the perfect mix of touristic-sports adventure and religious sentiment. This documentary shows all of the story from the origins until today.
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The discovery of the sepulcher of the Apostle Santiago, in the first third of the IX century, compelled many Christians to make pilgrimages to Compostela to worship his relics.
This required the construction of a church. This building, besides guarding and honoring the relics of the Apostle and his disciples Teodoro and Atanasio, had to take in a greater number of pilgrims coming from the Peninsular kingdoms, as well as from the rest of Europe. The purpose of its builders was not only to construct the most perfect church dedicated to the cult of the pilgrims; they wanted to make Compostela a religious and artistic reference for the world, like Rome and Jerusalem.
These are the beginnings of a fascinating story, a fabulous saga spanning centuries carried out
by thousands of people united in their devotion to the figure of the Apostle Santiago, in a remote corner of Finisterre. They called it Compostela: the field of stars.
The present state of the Santiago Cathedral is the result of numerous changes, projects, works, remodeling; in short, an evolving and impassioned architectural and artistic creation developed throughout many centuries.

Basilica Project: fourth part of the documentary The way of ST. James (Camino de Santiago). The Temple of stars.

It was the year 1074 and Bishop Diego Peláez studied the ambitious project of the French Masters for the construction of the new Basilica. The old cathedral had to be demolished. During these years, they only had time ,to build the three central chapels of the ambulatory: the onesdedicated to the Savior Saint Peter and Saint John as well as the walls that connected them.
In the right wall of the Savior’s chapel, we observe an incomplete inscription if we add the characters that are missing, we can read: ANNO MILENO SEPTVAGENO QUINTO FUNDATA JACOBI. This legend shows us that in the year 1075, the foundations of the cathedral were laid.

Diego Peláez was accused of high treason for having collaborated with the Normans and English, he was captured in 1088 and, by order of the king, dismissed as bishop of Compostela.
Twenty years had gone by since Diego Gelmírez traveled to Rome to be named bishop. As he admired the basilica at Conques, he dwelled in his eagerness to convert Santiago in the second great center of Christianity after Rome. In order to achieve this, Santiago had to somehow emulate the characteristics of the Holy See.
The Santiago basilica had to live up to expectation.

In the year 1101, while in Santiago after being named bishop by Pope Paschal II Diego Gelmírez initiated his projects. The first would be the conclusion of the cathedral. Bishop Gelmírez had the opportunity to see firsthand the main workshops specializing in Romanesque art in Toulouse, Conques and Cluny. It was apparent that if he wanted the Santiago church to become that great Apostolic see,
it had to be at the vanguard of art. To this end, he patronized continuous exchanges between Compostelan builders and the most advanced constructors of the times. The Way of St. James had definitely become a torrent of culutral and artistic exchange between Galicia and the rest of Europe.

The fruits of this cultural internationalism arrived quickly. At each side of the gigantic transept, two ,monumental and sculptured façades were lifted, in which two of the three main doors to the basilica were placed. To the north, the Puerta Francígena, through which the pilgrims finalizing the French way entered. And to the south, the Puerta de Platerías lifted above an atrium that gives access to the Episcopal Palace.
The façade of the Puerta de Platerías has lasted until our time, but its appearance was immediately modified: still in the days of Bishop Gelmírez, it suffered the ravages of a fire. The original reliefs were adorned with various pieces from both the original Francígena door and from earlier works.

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