It was the year 1065, and in the French village of Conques,
they had been building a church for 20 years
to house the relics of Sainte Foy,
adored since the year 866,
when a local monk brought them from Agen,
the city in which, in the II century,
she was martyrized at the age of 12.
Works had been suspended and its builders had abandoned the city.
Among them was Master Bernardo,
who – along with his artisans -
decided to travel to Spanish lands.
During the construction of the church at Conques,
they had to face an endless chain of technical challenges.
The problem was to combine the celebration of the usual liturgy
with the demands of the pilgrims to worship the Saint’s relics.
They needed more spaces, and by lifting the vaults,
they got the space they needed to build tribunes.
This allowed for the transit of worshippers along the upper galleries.
To ensure that pilgrims did not alter the liturgy,
the lateral naves were extended behind the main altar,
thus creating an ambulatory and radial chapels
in which they could pray.
Construction works like the one in Conques
were often interrupted, forcing masters,
masons and artisans to look for work elsewhere.
Chances of finding work increased in the different towns
and cities, along pilgrimage routes towards western Spain.
Because of the increase in the number of pilgrims,
it wasn’t strange to find sanctuaries,
hospitals or inns under construction.
And because of this continuous flow of artisans,
builders and artists, new developments,
shapes and techniques,
both in construction as well as in sculpture and painting, were transmitted.
The Way of St. James was not only a pilgrimage route
it soon became a flow of transmission and creation of culture and art.
It was the year 1073 - eight years after leaving Conques -
when Master Bernardo decided to travel to Santiago.
He had heard that a new bishop, Peláez,
wanted to build a new basilica,
and he was very interested in participating in the new project.
Alfonso VI had united under his crown
the kingdoms of Galicia, León and Castilla.
Once the Reconquista of the north of the peninsula
was concluded and its roads cleared,
pilgrims from different regions of Europe
headed towards Santiago de Compostela
along the four routes that crossed French territory
and coalesced in the Navarran town of Puente de la Reina.
From there, one unique way would take them to Santiago.
Bishop Diego Peláez decided to build a new church
to replace the pre-Romanesque Basilica.
After Almanzor’s ferocious attack,
the reconstructed temple proved to be too small
for the steady increase in pilgrims.
Master Bernardo, recently arrived from Conques,
had updated the bishop on the architectural techniques
they had been adopting in southern France.
The Romanesque building that still stands today
would soon get under way.
But before learning of the process
that led to building the magnificent and legendary cathedral,
let’s go further back in time to the origins of this marvelous story.
The excavations carried out under the cathedral
uncovered something more than the vestiges
of the first temples dedicated to the consecration of the Apostle’s relics.
Archeological remains uncovered the existence of a Roman village
that dates back to the first four centuries of the Common Era.
Many of their materials and structures were reused in the Middle Ages.
But we can still see the remains of the necropolis,
some of its walls and part of its mausoleum –
that in which the remains of the Apostle and his disciples were found,
and which today constitutes the crypt that contains the urn with his relics.