In the Plaza del Obradoiro, an imposing Renaissance building flanks the cathedral –a luxury hotel. That’s where the King and Queen of Spain stay when they travel to Galicia. Only a hundred years ago, it was one of the most famous hostels for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. In fact, to honor its tradition and heritage, the hotel still serves ten free meals to the first ten pilgrims who arrive each day.
But above all, this building is the witness of one of the most famous pilgrimages to Santiago in history: that of the Catholic Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand, back in 1486.
We know every detail thanks to the chronicles of Hernando del Pulgar, the famed Crónica de los Señores Reyes Católicos Don Fernando y Doña Isabel de Castilla y de Aragón (Chronicle of the Catholic Kings Don Fernando and Doña Isabel of Castile and Aragon). Del Pulgar described the royal pilgrimage in detail, almost day by day.
Historian Vidal González Sánchez has also noted how one of the notebooks of Queen Isabella’s almsman, Pedro de Toledo, has come down to us. In the notebook, De Toledo recorded the money that the Spanish monarchs gave to pilgrims and beggars along the way.
A sudden decision
Now, why did the Catholic Monarchs go to Santiago? Ferdinand and Isabella often made pilgrimages to Guadalupe. They even had a house there. Guadalupe has its own Camino Real, thanks to the Spanish monarchs and their successors until Philip IV, who were very devoted to this sanctuary.
But that of St. James the Apostle was much more than a shrine. The Apostle was the symbol and inspiration of the Christian Reconquista for almost eight centuries. As the patron saint of the land, he was also the spiritual bulwark of the very long war that had begun in Covadonga in 722 and that the Catholic Monarchs would end, with the surrender of Granada in 1492.
In fact, Isabella and Ferdinand planned to make a pilgrimage there to give solemn thanks after achieving the final victory, but an unforeseen event caused them to haste their trip. A Galician nobleman, the Count of Lemos, declared himself in rebellion.
In reality, it was a minor provocation from a virtually powerless nobody. It could have been settled without the need for the monarchs to travel there. In fact, it only took a verbal warning for the count to bend the knee. But the Kings, who were quite religious, read this as a divine sign: they had to stop the military operations in Andalusia and make a pilgrimage to the tomb of the Apostle.
A unique itinerary
The kings gathered an entourage of more than 200 people in Cordoba and set out. Curiously, they did not follow the Mozarabic Way or the Silver Route, which were the natural choices –and which passed near Guadalupe. Instead, they went almost as far as Madrid. Once there, they took what is now called the Camino de Levante, which passes through Ávila and Benavente, until it meets the French Way in Ponferrada.
Why this choice? It is very possible that the Queen wanted to visit her mother, queen dowager, and her grandmother, Isabel de Barcelós, who was about to die, while passing through Arévalo. They entered Galicia through O Cebreiro, the place where, according to tradition, a grail is kept.
They went through all the traditional stops of the Pilgrim’s Way: Ponferrada, Portomarín, Palas de Rei, Melide, O Pedrouzo, and arrived in Santiago on Tuesday, September 15th, amidst great expectations from the people.
They stayed there for 20 days, giving alms and donations to the needy. The most important were for the Apostle himself: a rich silver incense burner, a fragment of the Lignum Crucis and, most importantly, the means to build a huge hospital (that is, a hostel) for the pilgrims.
The building cost the kings a fortune. It had several courtyards with fountains, waterproof roofs, and its own vegetable garden. Each pilgrim stayed there free of charge for the first three days after arriving in Santiago.
Yes, you guessed it: it is the same luxury hotel we spoke of earlier. On its wall there is still an inscription which, translated into English, reads as follows:
The magnanimous kings Ferdinand and Isabella
Had it built for the pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela
They began the work in the year of Salvation, 1501
and ten years later, it was finished.
