Santiago de Compostela

The objective of this document is to provide a preliminary diagnosis of the Historic City of Santiago de Compostela based on an initial contact. To this end, an analysis of the territorial system has been conducted from a holistic, comprehensive, and articulated perspective.

Santiago is recognized as a city in a rolling landscape, with rugged terrain, whose main function since the 15th century has been to serve as one of the most important centers of Catholic pilgrimage. Place of destination, end of the road, space of cultural, religious, and commercial exchange, Santiago cannot be understood without its landscape and without the construction of the territorial organization model that the pilgrimage entails.

The understanding of the Historic City as a closed, walled enclosure still endures and is reflected in its urban planning. It's as if the old walls still need to be torn down. However, the Historic City responds more like a living organism whose heart beats within that original enclosure but whose connections with the territory are what endow it with functionality and urban vitality. It is therefore necessary to reclaim the role of the city as a system, or if you prefer, as an ecosystem.