Santiago Matamoros
by SirRichard
This is the name given to the local saint here. The meaning ("the one who kills the arabs") might be not quite politically correct nowadays, but it comes from the medieval times when arabs had conquered the spanish peninsula. Santiago was the saint in the name of christians fought the arabs back, so that's where the "nickname" comes from.
You can see inside the cathedral a statue of the sain riding a horse during a battle against the arabs.
Wild Flowers !!!
by into-thin-air
Even though it was getting fairly late in the year, The End of August / Beginning of September when we were on the " Way " we still game across quite a few Beautiful Wild Flowers. So Especially when you are up in the Mountains, Keep your eyes open and you might well be rewarded by the sight of some particularly Beautiful Examples !!!
Tourist Information Office (Turismo de Santiago)
by suvanki
This is the Main (City)Tourist office in Santiago de Compostela - A good place to start off your visit - friendly, helpful staff (the staff I encountered spoke good English, so useful for me, with my VERY limited Spanish), free maps, advice about places to see/things to do.
This is where you hire your Mp3 player for the guided walk of Santiago de Compostela, which I found to be very useful and interesting (please see my guided walk tip for more info)
Guide books and post cards etc for sale. Bus timetables for Airport and neighbouring towns etc.
Winter opening 0900 - 1400 and 1600 - 1900 hrs
Holy Week and High Season 0900 - 2100hrs
There are 2 other TI offices on this street;
The Regional tourist office at No 43 www.turgalicia.es
and the Xacobeo office at No 32 (for information about the Camino de Santiago
I called in here again at my recent visit to enquire about buses to get me to that evenings Bruce Springsteen concert. The staff again, were very helpful, and gave me the correct information that I needed.
A local institution
by Tami_G
This statue of two old ladies represents two local women called "las dos en punto" ("2 o'clock") or "las dos Marias" (the 2 Marias). They were two sisters which were a bit crazy and always went out for a walk at 2 o'clock. They dressed in very bright colours and wore very heavy make-up. Old women in Spain don't usually wear bright colours and many wear just black, so they were very outrageous for their time.
School of St Jerome
by micas_pt
Colexio de San Xerome, as it is locally called, is the simplest of the five buildings that dominate Praza do Obradoiro.
The School was built in the 15th century (ordered by Archbishop Fonseca) with the purpose of housing poor students. It was formerly called Estudio Vello (Old Study). The main door was brought from an old pilgrims' hospital, hence the figures are all of saints usually related to health and medicine.
Nowadays this building houses the University Vice-Chancellor's Office.