Santiago de Compostella by way of the "Camino"

A very enjoyable portion of my research involved the history of Muslim Spain or al-Andalusia.  The Muslim Conquest dominated most of the Iberian peninsula for more than seven hundred years.  The Muslims in 711 over ran the country then ruled by a Visigothic Christian monarchy.  

During my research I came across the story of the ‘discovery’ in about 830 of the tomb of St. James the Apostle at the site later known as Santiago de Compostella, which provided the small kingdom with a powerful patron saint and important focus of Christian belief.  This discovery was proof enough that the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal combined) was meant by God to be a Christian country.

Listening to a Boston College podcast on contemporary Catholic issues, a husband and wife team who were also professors discussing their "pilgrimage" in Spain along the "Camino."  As it turns out, thousands of Catholics in Europe make this trek on foot along the Camino to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella (which is over the grave of the apostle) and is by all accounts a beautiful and wonderful experience. The trek which can begin in France and into northwestern Spain can be as long as 1000 miles or as short as a 100 miles.  The point is that it is a awesome established tradition in Europe and I would never have known what they were talking about had I not done hours and hours of research and by luck come across Santiago de Compostella. 

Now I must walk the Camino myself someday and will be sorely disappointed if I don't!  An interesting bit of the history of the town is that the "Moors" sacked the city in 997 and paraded the catheral's huge bells through Cordoba, then the capital of al-Andalusia.