Hidden in plain sight: a Santiago gem

If you tire of being a tourist in Santiago, and even if you don’t, I recommend taking a walk up the hill beyond the Seminario Menor to the Bosque de Galicia, the civic celebration of its status as regional city of culture. Over the past three years this 34-hectare wasteland has been planted with over 11,000 specimens of 11 native species of trees, all of them thriving. It’s both a labour of love by local volunteers and a work in progress by the maintenance crew and construction workers, who currently seem to outnumber hillwalkers. There is also a museum on site with indoor and outdoor exhibitions and installations, and a designated ‘literary’ garden, although this teacher of literature signally failed to make the literary connections. * While you can still see and hear the traffic far below, you rise above it, and the gentle climb will stop your post-Camino muscles from seizing up. I spent much of my last day in Santiago up here, far from the madding crowd, feeling at peace with the world to which I am about to return.

* On this morning’s return visit I discovered the connection, obscured yesterday by grasscutters at work. The literary quotations are arranged, sundial fashion, on the ground. Most of the poets seem to have inspired by oak and chestnut trees.

peregrina2000 said:

Paladina, do you have any idea about whether the other buildings are being used at all?

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Yes, there’s a programme of events on display, and yesterday a conference was taking place in the building in your Cidade2 photo. I’ve a couple of hours to spare before heading for the airport, so I’ll take another walk up the hill. And, yes, the Sta Maria la Real de Sar, with stonework by Mateo, the master mason of the Cathedral, is well worth a visit. I was fascinated by the C18 remedial buttressing to prevent the threatened collapse of the aisles. Standing beneath the leaning columns and gazing up at the distorted vault, offers a vertiginous spectacle.