Author: Ultreya Tours

Ultreya Tours is a incoming Tour Operator specialized in organizing comprehensive and highly personalized walking tours for groups and solo travelers on the Camino de Santiago. Founded and based in Santiago de Compostela, we know the region of Galicia and the secrets of the Camino by heart. Let us introduce you to our vision of the Camino.

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.

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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.

The 5 squares of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela is often referred to as a large village built around a beautiful Cathedral. When walking around the Old Walled Town and arriving into any of the 5 squares of the Cathedral you will see this is true. Each one of these 5 squares shows the Cathedral in a different way, always grandiose, and allows an entrance or exit to this sacred site. They all have a different spiritual meaning and reason for being.
The Cathedral of Santiago from the Air

In this article, we would like to describe what we think El Obradoiro, La Quintana de los Vivos y de los Muertos, Platerias y la Azabachería means.
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