The Funeral Space of the Pilgrims’ Cemetery in Compostela

Abstract

In Compostela there was a cemetery for pilgrims since at least the 12th century, linked to the Old Hospital of Santiago and to the lost Trinity chapel. At the beginning of the 16th century, the cemetery grounds were acquired for the Royal Hospital and a second chapel was erected: the Vera Cruz, reformed in the 18th century as the chapel of the Virgin of Anguish and today the parish of Saint Fructuosus. But this was a secondary cemetery in the city. Overwhelmed by the Pazo de Raxoi and by social hygiene measures, the space fell into oblivion since the 19th century. In 2009 an intervention was carried out in its surroundings, promoted by the Office of the Historic City. Cristina Ansede and Alberto Quintáns were the designers of a site-specific intervention, landscaped and with a minimalist aesthetic, which provides the city with a new public space that revitalizes the funerary place.