From Sacred Place to Monumental Space: Mobility Along the Way to St. James

Abstract

Human intervention and social practices have been pivotal for the creation of sacred spaces; indeed, the mobility of human beings has endowed spaces with meaning through religious cultural products. Progressive human intervention in holy places has turned them into monumental spaces, where cultural heritage has become a symbol of identity and the space has assumed the values of the culture that produced it. In this paper, we investigate the value of heritage along pilgrimage routes, as in the case of the Way of St. James. The sacred-monumental space works according to the system of artistic and cultural elements that define it as an integrated system. We will focus on the twentieth-century rediscovery of the Way in Spain, on the processes of monumental reinterpretation that culminated in its declaration, in 1987, as ‘First European Cultural Route’ by the Council of Europe, and as ‘UNESCO World Heritage Site’, in 1993.

Key Words:

• Sacred Spaces
• World Heritage
• Pilgrimages
• The Way of Saint James
• Restoration

Notes

1. In general, the term Invention means the discovery of the relics of a martyr in a place where there had been no previous tradition of their existence.

2. The second inventio alludes to the process of rediscovery of the remains of the Apostle St. James during the nineteenth century, at the time of canon and historian A. López Ferreiro and Cardinal Payá, proponent of the Church’s most traditionalist standpoints and staunch defender of the Pope’s infallibility. The remains of the Apostle, discovered after having been hidden, have never been scientifically examined to establish their authenticity.

3. The period of Confiscation in Spain involved appropriation by the State of goods belonging to so-called ‘dead hands’ (mainly religious orders and the Catholic Church) from the end of the eighteenth century to the first 30 years of the twentieth century.

4. Jacobeo in Spanish (Xacobeo in Galician) is a word to describe the cult and pilgrimage of Santiago (St. James). The names Iacobus, Iago, Jaume, Diego and James refer to Santiago, according to the particular transcription of the classical languages. In fact, Xacobeo has become a crucially important tourist reference, as it alludes to the celebration of the Holy Years (the Feast of St. James falls on a Sunday and the Church and public bodies offer indulgences).