The Holy Apostolic and Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Santiago de Compostela is a temple of Catholic worship.

It houses what, according to tradition, is the tomb of the Apostle Santiago, which made the temple one of the main pilgrimage destinations in Europe during the Middle Ages through the so-called Camino de Santiago, a religious route that communicated the Iberian Peninsula. with the rest of the continent.

This was decisive for the medieval Hispanic kingdoms to participate in the cultural movements of the time; today it remains an important pilgrimage destination.

A privilege granted in 1122 by Pope Calixto II declared that they would be "Holy Year" or "Jubilee Year" in Compostela all the years in which July 25, the day of Santiago, coincided on Sunday; this privilege was confirmed by Pope Alexander III in his bull Regis aeterni in 1179.

The construction of the current cathedral began in 1075 under the reign of Alfonso VI and the patronage of Bishop Diego Peláez. It was built on the same plan as the monastic brick church of Saint Sernin in Toulouse, probably the largest Romanesque building in France.

The temple was built mainly in granite. Construction was stopped on different occasions and, according to the Liber Sancti Iacobi, the last stone was laid in 1122 and the cathedral was consecrated in 1128.

According to the Codex Calixtinus, the architects were "Bernard the Elder, a wonderful teacher," his assistant Galperinus Robertus, and later possibly "Stephen, a master of cathedrals."

In the last stage "Bernardo, the young man" (who was possibly Esteban's son) finished the building, while Galperinus was in charge of the coordination. He also built a monumental fountain in front of the northern portal in 1122.

The last stage of construction begins in 1168 when the chapter entrusts the master Mateo with the realization of the crypt and the Pórtico de la Gloria, and the cathedral is definitely consecrated in April 1211, on the morning of Thursday of the second week of Easter, by Archbishop Pedro Muñiz, in the presence of King Alfonso IX and his son, as well as numerous ecclesiastical and civil authorities.

The church became an episcopal seat in 1075 and, largely thanks to the efforts of Bishop Diego Gelmírez and its growing importance as a place of pilgrimage, Calixto II consolidated it as an archiepiscopal seat in 1120.

The cathedral was embellished and enlarged between the 16th and 18th centuries.