Santiago de Compostela: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
For more than a thousand years pilgrims have walked across Europe to this town, to the tomb believed to hold the apostle James, and they still arrive by the hundred every day. This route follows them in: from the hill where they first see the towers, through the northern gate of the old town, to the square and the tomb. Drive to Monte do Gozo, then walk the rest, about two hours with the cathedral visit. Go in the morning, when the walkers who left before dawn are arriving in the square.
A short history of Santiago de Compostela
At the beginning of the 9th century a hermit named Pelagius announced that he had found the tomb of the Apostle James here, and King Alfonso II of Asturias built the first church over it. A town grew up around the tomb, and pilgrims from all over Europe began walking to it. In 997 Almanzor, ruler of Córdoba, raided and burned the town, but left the tomb itself untouched. Construction of the Romanesque cathedral began in 1075, and its sculpted Portico of Glory was completed by Master Mateo in 1188. The university was founded in 1495. The old town was declared a World Heritage Site in 1985, and since the 1980s the city has been the capital of Galicia. Every year hundreds of thousands of walkers on the Camino de Santiago arrive here, most of them finishing in the Praza do Obradoiro in front of the cathedral.
The ten best sights in Santiago de Compostela
1Santiago CathedralBook the Pórtico de la Gloria visit online; entry slots are timed and sell out
2Praza do ObradoiroSit on the stones at midday and watch the pilgrims arrive — that is the show
3Hostal dos Reis CatólicosNow a Parador; non-guests can visit the cloisters for a small fee
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4Pazo de Raxoi
City hall on the west side of the square; St James on horseback rides on the roof
5San Martiño PinarioGo in for the vast baroque choir stalls; few visitors do
6Praza da QuintanaThe Holy Door is here; the wide steps are the town's evening bench
7Praza das PrateríasThe cathedral's oldest façade, and the horse fountain where everyone meets
8Museo do Pobo GalegoClimb the triple spiral staircase even if you skip the rest
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9Galician Centre of Contemporary Art
Free; Álvaro Siza's white building next to Bonaval, with a roof terrace
10Collegiate Church of Santa María do SarTen minutes' walk down from the old town; look at how far the pillars lean
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Santiago de Compostela →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Santiago de Compostela:
Free walking tours in Santiago de Compostela
The last kilometres of the Camino
For more than a thousand years pilgrims have walked across Europe to this town, to the tomb believed to hold the apostle James, and they still arrive by the hundred every day. This route follows them in: from the hill where they first see the towers, through the northern gate of the old town, to the square and the tomb. Drive to Monte do Gozo, then walk the rest, about two hours with the cathedral visit. Go in the morning, when the walkers who left before dawn are arriving in the square.
- Monte do Gozo · The name means the Mount of Joy, for the moment medieval pilgrims first saw the cathedral spires from here. The large monument on top marks the visit of Pope John Paul II for World Youth Day in 1989.
- San Martiño Pinario · After El Escorial it is the largest monastery in Spain, built by Benedictines who were among the richest landowners in Galicia. Its church lies below the level of the square, down a long flight of steps, so most people walk straight past it.
- Praza do Obradoiro · Obradoiro means workshop: the stonemasons who built the baroque façade in the 1740s worked in this square. Pilgrims traditionally stop on the scallop-shell stone at its centre, the point where the Camino officially ends.
- Santiago Cathedral · Behind the baroque front stands the Pórtico de la Gloria by Master Mateo, whose lintel carries the date 1188 and whose painted saints were cleaned in a restoration finished in 2018. On feast days the Botafumeiro, a censer of about 50 kilos, is swung across the transept by eight men pulling one rope.
- Hostal dos Reis Católicos · Ferdinand and Isabella founded it in 1499 as a hospital for sick and poor pilgrims, the same decade they took Granada and sent Columbus west. It has housed travellers ever since, and as a Parador it is often called one of the oldest hotels in the world.
- Praza da Quintana · The Holy Door on this square is opened only in Holy Years, when 25 July, the feast of St James, falls on a Sunday; the next is 2027. The lower half of the square was the canons' cemetery, still called the Quintana of the Dead.
Students, poets and the market
Santiago is a university town as much as a pilgrim one: the university dates from 1495, and tens of thousands of students keep the bars of the old town full long after the pilgrims are asleep. This walk leaves the cathedral behind for the colleges, the market and the hill of Bonaval, where Galicia buries its great writers. About two and a half hours on foot, with a climb at the end. Go on a weekday morning, when the market is in full swing; it rains here more than anywhere in Spain, so carry an umbrella.
- Colexio de San Xerome · Its Romanesque doorway is older than the building and was moved here from an earlier pilgrims' hospital. Today it houses the rectorate of the university, on the same square as the city hall and the cathedral.
- Colexio de Fonseca · Archbishop Alonso de Fonseca founded this college in the 16th century, and its Renaissance cloister was where the university began to teach. In the 1980s, before it had a building of its own, the new Galician parliament sat here.
- Casa da Troia · A student boarding house of the 19th century, made famous by Alejandro Pérez Lugín's 1915 novel La casa de la Troya about student life here. It is now a small museum of how students lived, ate and serenaded in the old town.
- Mercado de Abastos · The long granite halls were built in 1941 to look as old as the town around them. Look for tetilla, the Galician cow's-milk cheese shaped like a breast, and the women selling it from the villages.
- Museo do Pobo Galego · The museum fills the old Dominican convent of Bonaval, and its triple spiral staircase by Domingo de Andrade lets three people climb at once without meeting. In the church next door is the Pantheon of Illustrious Galicians, where the poet Rosalía de Castro was reburied in 1891.
- Parque da Alameda · The bronze of two women in bright clothes shows the sisters Maruxa and Coralia Fandiño, who walked here every afternoon in loud colours through the grey Franco years. The town mocked them then and put up the statue in 1994.
Around Compostela by car
The legend of St James does not start in Santiago but on the river to the south, where a stone boat is said to have brought his body from Jaffa. This route drives out to that landing place, then loops back by a holy mountain, a bridge on the road to the end of the world, and a modern hill of culture. It is a day by car, or a morning before or after the city itself. Back roads are narrow and green; allow more time than the map suggests.
- Rosalía de Castro House, Padrón · The poet Rosalía de Castro, who restored Galician as a literary language with Cantares gallegos in 1863, spent her last years here and died in the house in 1885. In Padrón itself, under the altar of the church of Santiago, is the stone post to which the boat bearing St James is said to have been tied.
- Pico Sacro · In the legend, the disciples carrying St James's body were sent by the pagan queen Lupa to fetch wild bulls from this mountain, hoping the beasts would kill them. The bulls turned tame and pulled the cart, and the queen converted.
- Pazo de Oca · Called the Galician Versailles, this manor house has formal gardens with two ponds shaped as stone boats, one carrying a garden of hedges. It is still privately owned, by the ducal house of Medinaceli.
- Collegiate Church of Santa María do Sar · The Romanesque pillars inside lean outward so far that it looks like an optical trick; the soft ground by the River Sar gave way under the vaults. Huge stone buttresses were added outside in later centuries to stop the church collapsing.
- City of Culture of Galicia · Peter Eisenman designed it as a landscape of buildings shaped like a scallop shell pressed onto Mount Gaiás. Work began in 2001; costs soared, and in 2013 the regional government cancelled the last two buildings.
- Ponte Maceira · The bridge over the Tambre carries the Camino from Santiago on to Finisterre, which the Romans thought was the end of the known world. A legend says it collapsed under soldiers chasing St James's disciples, letting them escape.
Getting to Santiago de Compostela and getting around
- Santiago Airport · 15 minutes from town; the natural place to drop the car at the end of the route
- Santiago Station · Fast trains to Madrid in about three and a half hours, and to A Coruña and Vigo
- Santiago Bus Station · Buses to Finisterre and Muxía for the end of the world, if you leave the car
Cheap eats in Santiago de Compostela
Galicia eats from the Atlantic, and Santiago's bars do it simply: pulpo á feira, boiled octopus cut with scissors onto a wooden plate with olive oil, salt and paprika, pimientos de Padrón fried in salt, and wine poured into a white china cup. A drink at the bar often comes with a free tapa. For dessert there is tarta de Santiago, an almond cake with the cross of the order of St James dusted on top in sugar.
- Mercado de Abastos bars · Cooking fee about 3-5 euros a plate, plus the seafood you bought
- O Gato Negro · Octopus about 12-15 euros, a cunca of wine about 2
- Bar Orella · Standing bar for raxo, fried pork bites, about 6-9 euros
- Abastos 2.0 market bar · Small plates of the day's fish at the counter, about 4-10 euros each
- Café Casino · Coffee among old wood panels on Rúa do Vilar, about 2 euros
- Rúa do Franco bars · Padrón peppers about 6-8 euros a plate; free tapa with a drink
Museums in Santiago de Compostela
- Museum of Pilgrimage · Free; the view from the top floor is the bonus
- Museo do Pobo Galego · Fishing boats, bagpipes and farm life; the spiral stairs
- Galician Centre of Contemporary Art · Free; temporary shows and a roof terrace
- Casa da Troia · Student life of the 1880s, in one small house
- Cathedral Museum · Tapestries, the cloister and the roof walk; book ahead
Holy places in Santiago de Compostela
- Tomb of St James · The pilgrims' Mass is at noon; arrive early for a seat
- San Martiño Pinario · Vast baroque church, usually quiet
- Santa María do Sar · The leaning pillars; a quiet walk from town
- Pantheon of Illustrious Galicians · Inside the Bonaval church, next to the folk museum
- Convent of San Francisco · Founded, by tradition, after St Francis's own pilgrimage
Nature and day trips near Santiago de Compostela
- Parque da Alameda · Old oaks and the best view of the cathedral
- Parque de Bonaval · Terraces and a view of the towers, behind the folk museum
- Pico Sacro · A short steep walk to the top from the road
- Ponte Maceira · River, bridge and old mills; a picnic stop
- Pazo de Oca gardens · Box hedges, ponds and camellias
Where to eat in Santiago de Compostela
- Casa Marcelo · Shared-table tasting menu; book ahead
- Abastos 2.0 · Market seafood, a new menu every day
- O Dezaseis · Galician classics in a stone cellar; good for groups
- A Tafona · Refined Galician cooking near the market
- Rúa do Franco · Octopus houses side by side; compare before you sit
Frequently asked questions about Santiago de Compostela
What is there to see in Santiago de Compostela?
The top sights in Santiago de Compostela are Santiago Cathedral, Praza do Obradoiro and Hostal dos Reis Católicos. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Santiago de Compostela?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Santiago de Compostela without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Santiago de Compostela?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Santiago de Compostela, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The last kilometres of the Camino.
How do you get to Santiago de Compostela and get around?
The main ways are Santiago Airport, Santiago Station and Santiago Bus Station. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Santiago de Compostela, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Santiago de Compostela that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Santiago de Compostela for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.