Category: Important Galician Figures

Learn about the important Galicians figures that helped build Galicia, Santiago de Compostela and the Camino de Santiago as we know it

The story of his eminence the Archbishop Don Diego Xelmírez the Salva Regina of Santiago de Compostela

When learning about the History of Santiago de Compostela there is one man that regularly comes up as the saviour, historian, architect and politician that made this city possible. We are of course talking about Diego Gelmírez or Xelmírez (Latin Didacus Gelmirici) (ca 1069 – ca 1149) who was the second bishop (from 1100) and the first archbishop (from 1120) of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela.

Medieval miniature from the monastery of Toxos Outus representing Diego Gelmírez ordering the two new riders into his entourage
Medieval miniature from the monastery of Toxos Outus representing Diego Gelmírez ordering the two new riders into his entourage

He is a prominent figure in the history of Galicia and an important historiographer of the Iberia of his day. Diego involved himself in many quarrels, ecclesiastical and secular, which were recounted in the Historia Compostelana, which covered his episcopacy from 1100 to 1139 and serves as a sort of gesta of the bishop’s life.

Continue reading The story of his eminence the Archbishop Don Diego Xelmírez the Salva Regina of Santiago de Compostela

The Marias – las dos en punto

At the entrance of the Alameda Gardens, you will come across an unusual statue that is of two women dressed in a rather eccentric way and with most peculiar features. There are the famous Marias or “las dos en punt” (two o’clock on the dot), two much loved characters of Santiago de Compostela.