"Europe was made on the pilgrim road to Compostela."

Last Thursday as I stumbled into Santiago, I remembered passing the above quote, engraved on the sidewalk in several languages. I should get a picture of that, I thought at the time. But it was a busy time of day with lots of people walking and I was too tired anyway. Today, I walked back to find it.

I think it means that as people traveled from all over to Santiago de Compostela via different routes, they helped build up the towns and other places in Europe along the way. One such place was Tours, France. Pilgrims on the way to the shrine at St. James would also stop at the shrine of St. Martin of Tours.

As it turns out, we are staying at Hospederia San Martin Pinario, located on the left side of the building above.

Here's a closer look. The Hospederia is housed in a a former monastery, San Martin Pinario is dedicated to St. Martin of Tours (Pinario means pines; there used to be a pine forest at the foot of the monastery.) The Hospederia faces the Cathedral de Santiago, the shrine to St. James.

The building, which dates from the 16th century, and the grounds are beautiful.

We have been here for almost a week, far longer than the 18 other places we have stayed on this trip. It has been nice to lay our heads in the same spot for awhile.

I didn't check out the church part of the monastery until today. It's at the back of the building. At the top, below the cross, is a carving of St. Martin of Tours on his horse.

Here's a little bit closer of a view. One of the stories about St. Martin is that he was riding his horse and saw a beggar who didn't have much clothing. So St. Martin cut his cloak in two and gave the beggar half.

Inside the church.

The altar is baroque. You have to give those baroques an A for effort, but oh my, there's a lot going on. It's an interesting contrast to the approach of the Irish, who are not known for any great churches. It's as if they looked around at all the natural beauty and said, "We can't compete with God." 

The rotunda-like ceiling.

There were six side chapels that were pretty amazing, too. Above is St. Benedict.

At this chapel, the cherub is holding a chalice to catch the blood of Jesus.

The choir, behind the altar, is carved of wood. The lower panels depict scenes in the life of Mary.

Here is the flight into Egypt.

This painting, of Jesus riding into Jerusalem, was in the museum portion of the church. I liked all the activity in the scene.

Beautiful view from our Hospederia, where many pilgrims are staying.