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Exploring Celtic Spain
Rate it! Votes (2) | Comments (0) By Christopher Kenneally Photos: Christopher Kenneally Posted August 6th, 2007 Christopher Kenneally is the author of Boston Insight Guide - Compact, (1998, Arrow Map)	Boston Insight Guide - Compact

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, SPAIN - In this city's dark and brooding Romanesque cathedral, midday mass drew to a close. Several monks in red cassocks carried before the congregation of pilgrims and tourists an enormous silver censer hung from a long pole. At the altar, the priest made the sign of the cross over the botafumeiro, which was as large as a wood stove, then he tossed great spoonfuls of incense into its glowing red belly. Finally, the botafumeiro was tied to a thick rope hung from the cathedral's high apse. With a sudden yank from one of the monks, it rose up and began swinging from side to side like a great smoking pendulum. The arc grew wider and higher, and filled the church with a sweet-smelling fog.

Perfume For the Pilgrims
During the Middle Ages, the faithful who arrived at Santiago for the blessing of St. James the Apostle had traveled in great hardship from across Europe. They were more concerned about the state of their souls than the smell on their bodies. In those days, incense was more than a religious offering; it was a giant air freshener. Santiago remains a popular destination with Catholic pilgrims at the end of the 20th century, though today's breed has little practical need for any cleansing ritual. For them, the botafumeiro is simply a striking step on a deeply religious visit that concludes behind the cathedral's altar when they embrace a gilded statue of St. James.

Scallop Shells and Apostle's Bones
From medieval tradition, too, came Santiago's special relationship with the scallop shell. As a souvenir of their journey, pilgrims would wear scallop shells around their necks. Later, Galicians who would accept passing pilgrims into their homes also hung scallop shells over their doors. No surprise, then, that in French, "une coquille Saint-Jacques"-- literally, a St. James shell -- is a "scallop."

Santiago de Compostela has welcomed pious pilgrims for nearly a thousand years. In Catholic tradition, it ranks with Rome and Jerusalem as among the holiest of Christendom's cities. Without the pilgrims, Santiago would certainly only resemble the small rural Spanish villages of surrounding Galicia. With the pilgrims, Santiago developed its celebrated Romanesque architecture, its university begun by medieval monks, and its reputation for hospitality.

Santiago, quite literally, is a city constructed around a legend. According to Catholic tradition, the Apostle St. James ended his days preaching the gospel in this northwestern corner of Iberia, what is now Spain and Portugal. In the 8th century, the story goes, someone "discovered" St. James' bones near here, and soon enough, the pilgrims were coming.

By 1075, "Santiago" -- the city of St. James -- began construction of a cathedral as a shrine for the Apostle's remains.

Of the cathedral's several medieval architects, "Master" Mateo is considered the greatest. His 12th-century design for the "Portal of Glory," where pilgrims traditionally enter, is an elaborately sculpted study of the Old and New Testaments. Surrounding the cathedral, the medieval city's narrow and winding streets are cast like a tangled net on the side of a hill. Romanesque architecture abounds; the stone is often darkened by rain, which falls almost daily here.

Spanish Bagpipes?
Eminently Spanish in so many ways -- not the least for their religious fervor -- Santiago and Galicia occasionally throw cultural curves that may lead visitors to believe they are somewhere else entirely. The local language, for example, known as "Galego," can be mistaken for Portuguese, which isn't that surprising as the province lies directly north of Portugal. More startling, however, is to stop at early evening by the door of Agruparion Folklorica on the Calle de la Algalia de Arriba. The music making its way to the street is--of all things--from bagpipes! And the Galician folklore group isn't hosting an Irish or Scottish marching band; they are young people who have come to learn traditional Galician songs and dances.

The bagpipe music has come to them through their ancient ancestors who, like the Irish and Scots as well as the Bretons in France, were Celtic people. The Celtic language has long been lost here, but Galician music shrill and lively yet with passages of great melancholy, is undeniably Celtic. On record, popular traditional Galician bands like Milladoiro, Xorima and Citania (the last named for a Celtic settlement unearthed in northern Portugal near Guimaraes) might as well be the Irish Planxty or Scottish Relativity for all the difference between them.

What a Galician Celtic song may not share with its Irish cousin, though, is the power to fire up nationalism. Like all non-Castilean Spain, the province suffered repression under the dictator Franco (even though he was born near La Coruna, in Galicia). The local language and culture, said one local official, survived "only as a private thing." Since 1983 and the coming of democracy to Spain, Galicia has been an autonomous province and those would push further toward independence from the national government are apparently few.

There are nationalist parties, ranging from the reactionary Coalicion Galega to the left wing and strongly pro-Celtic Partido Galeguista. None, though, has the following or guerilla tactics of Spain's Basque separatists. Typical Galicians seem as indifferent to the idea of nationalism as they are to the graffiti and posters on the their walls extolling it.

A Celtics Fan
With the local university buildings and dormitories spread throughout the town, Santiago has a youthful air at night. At pubs like O Galo d'Oro on Calle de Congo, students gather to drink and to listen as a jukebox plays Springsteen, Dylan and the Rolling Stones. Jorge, owner of the dark, subterranean pub, has lived in England and keeps behind the bar English sports magazines. Jorge is also very pro-Celtic, which in his case means he is a fan of the Boston Celtics professional basketball team.

Santiago's marketplace, beside the Iglesia de San Agustin, brings Galician farmers from the countryside. In the early morning, they set up makeshift stands and sell cabbage, tomatoes, and other vegetables. A favorite local food is queso de pais, a white, cone-shaped farmer's cheese traditionally served with honey. Fishmongers offer live crab, scallops and mussels taken from the nearby Atlantic.

Wine & Shopping
Within the last five years, Galicia has emerged as an important wine-making region of Spain. In 1988, the area was awarded a "denomination of origin" as R'as Baixas, for crisp, dry and aromatic white wines made from the native Albarino grape. Albarino wines have been nicknamed the "Wines of the Sea" for their great affinity with shellfish and other seafoods.

Shopping in the Santiago market is as much a medieval experience as the botafumeiro swinging in the cathedral. There are no set prices and bargaining is the norm. "Even if you don't bargain," one Galegan advised, "the women will give you a discount because they would feel badly if they didn't."

Celtic Spain Information
For more information on travel to Spain and Galicia, contact the Tourist Office of Spain, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10103, tel. 212-265-8822, fax. 212-265-8864., or toll-free, 1-888-OKSPAIN (1-888-657-7246). The web address is www.okspain.org

I traveled to Galicia by rail from Madrid via Leon, and found the ride through mountain passages exhilarating. The Spanish State Railways (RENFE) is one of the most economical in Europe and is accessible with a typical Eurail Pass. The Tourist Office can provide detailed information on the Spanish railway system.

Iberia Airlines internal service, Aviaco, also operates commuter flights throughout the country. For information call 1-800-772-4642.

For accommodations, visitors may consider staying at Hostal de Los Reyes Cat?licos, a 16th-century hospital renovated as a luxury hotel or El Pazo de la Merced, a 17th-century country manor on the banks of Ferrol River in nearby Nedo.

The city also has several relatively inexpensive, if plain, hotels including Hotel Compostela and Hotel del Peregrino.

For more information on the region's wines and vineyards, contact Wines of Spain, The Commercial Office of Spain, 405 Lexington Avenue, 44th floor, New York, NY 10174-0331, tel. 1-212-661-4814.

 

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