Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/319

Rh SANTIAGO 299 under the government of Ambrosio O'Higgins; it is now crossed by several handsome bridges, the oldest of which, a structure of eleven arches, dates from 1767-1779. From the very first Santiago was laid out with great regularity in parallelograms ; but owing to the frequency of earth- quakes the dwelling-houses are seldom built of more than a single story in height. The cathedral, situated in the Plaza de la Independencia, is the oldest of the churches. Originally erected by Pedro Valdivia and rebuilt by Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, it was destroyed by the earthquake of 1647 and rebuilt on a new plan subsequent to 1748. It is 351 feet long by 92 feet wide, but has no very striking features. Among the other ecclesiastical buildings are the church of San Agustin, erected in 1595 by Crist6bal de Vera and in modern times adorned with a pillared portico ; the churches of San Francisco, La Merced, and Santo Domingo, dating from the 18th century; the Augustine nunnery founded by Bishop Medelliu in 1576; the Carmen Alto, or church of the Carmelite nunnery, an elegant little Gothic building ; the stately church of the Reformed Dominicans, rich in marble monolithic columns ; and the chapel erected in 1852 to the memory of Pedro Valdivia next to the house in which he is reputed to have lived. The public cemetery, recently secularized, has a large number of marble and bronze monuments, mostly from Italy. Among the secular buildings the more noteworthy are the palace of the intendency, the old presidential palace (popularly Las Cajas), the congress buildings, the mint, the palace of justice, the municipal theatre. The present university of Santiago dates from 1842,- the older Uni- versidad de San Felipe, which had been established in 1747, having been closed in 1839. It occupies a fine building in the Alameda, and alongside stands the great National Institute of Secondary Education. In 1882 the university was attended by 920 students and the institute by 1059. The city also contains a school of arts and trades (1849), a musical conservatorio (1849), a national museum, a military school established in 1842 and enlarged on the abolition of the naval military school at Valparaiso in 1872 (now re-established), and a school of agriculture founded by the Agricultural Society chartered in 1869. The National Library is a noble collection of books dating from 1813, especially rich in works relating to America; there is also a good library in the National Institute. Besides the official journal, Santiago has four daily papers, as well as various reviews and other serials. Besides the Alameda, a great tree-planted avenue decorated with statues (the Abbe Molina, Generals San Martin, Carrera, O'Higgins, and Freire, &c.), the principal open spaces in Santiago are the Plaza de la Independencia, the Canadilla, a broad tree-bordered avenue, the Alameda de Yungay, the Campo de Marte (where are the Penitentiary, a prison built and administered according to the most approved modern principles, and the large Artillery Park), the Quinta Normal de Agricultura, which comprises zoological and botanical gardens, and the large area in which the Inter- national Exhibition of 1875 was held. As the Mapocho was unfit for drinking, water was introduced about 1865 by an aqueduct 5 miles long. The prevailing winds at Santiago are from the south and south-west. On an average rain falls for 216 hours in the course of the year, mostly between May and September. Snow and hail are both extremely rare. Earthquakes are so frequent that as many as twenty-seven or thirty shocks are sometimes registered in a year. Those which have proved really disastrous are the earthquakes of 17th March 1575, 13th May 1647, 8th July 1730, 19th November 1822, and 20th February 1835. The population of Santiago, which was returned in 1865 as 168,553 (79,920 males and 88,633 females), had increased to 200,000 in 1883. It was in February 1541 that Pedro de Valdivia, one of Pizarro's captains, founded the city of Santiago del Nuevo Estreino iu accordance with a vow he had made at Cuzco. The place has all along held an important position in Chilian history, but perhaps none of the events with which it is associated sent such a sensation through the world as the burning of the Jesuit church with the loss of more than two thousand lives in the flames (8th December 1863). SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELLA, the former capital of Galicia, in the north-west of Spain, situated in 42 52' 30" N. lat. and 8 30' 6" W. long., 5U miles west- by-south from Lugo, and 32 miles south-by-west from Corunna, in the province of that name. It lies on the eastern slope of the Monte Pedroso, surrounded by mountains which draw down incessant rain that gives the granite buildings of its deserted streets an extra tint of melancholy and decay. The city is still the seat of a university and of an archbishopric, which lays claim to the primacy of all Spain, but its former glories have quite departed. In the Middle Ages its shrine, which coni tained the body of St James the Great, was one of the most famous in Europe, and gathered crowds of pilgrims from all parts. The city became, in fact, the focus of all the art and chivalry of neighbouring Christendom, and a spot where conflicting interests could meet on neutral ground. But the days of pilgrimages are past, and, though the Congregation of Rites declared in 1884 that the cathedral still enshrines the veritable body of the apostle, pilgrims are scarcely more often seen than in any other cathedral town. The trade of Santiago can never have been otherwise than dependent on the crowds of pilgrims who visited the shrine. It now only survives in the silversmiths' shops on the Plaza de los Plateros, which still have a steady sale for artistic pieces of peasant jewellery. Otherwise it consists in mere local traffic in cattle, linen, silk, leather, hats, and paper. There is com- munication by rail with the little seaport of Carril on the west coast. The population within the municipal boundaries was 23,000 in 1885. The relics of the saint were said to have been discovered in 835 by Theodomir, bishop of Iria, who was guided to the spot by a star, whence the name (Campus Stellas). A chapel was forthwith erected, and the bishopric was transferred thither by a special bull of Pope Leo III. A more substantial building was begun in 868, but was totally destroyed in 997 by Almauzor, who, however, respected the sacred relics. On the reconquest of the city by Bermudo III. the roads which led to it were improved by that monarch, and pilgrims began to flock to the shrine, which fast grew in reputation. In 1078 the erection of the present cathedral was begun during the episcopate of Diego Pelaez, and was con- tinued until 1188, when the western doorway was completed. It is a cruciform building in the Romanesque style, 280 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 70 feet high, and keeps its original form in the interior, but is disfigured externally by much poor late work. Besides the classic dome and clock-tower, the two western towers have been raised to a height of 220 feet and crowned with cupolas, and between them has been erected a classic portico, above which is a niche containing a statue of St James. The fa9ade was the work of Casas y Noboa in 1738, and the statue was by Ventura Rodriguez in 1764. The design is mediocre, and gains its chief effect from forming part of an extended architectural composition on the Plaza Mayor, a grand square which is surrounded on all sides by public buildings. The ground rises to the cathedral, which is reached by a magnificent quadruple flight of steps, flanked by statues of David and Solomon. Access to the staircase is given through some fine wrought-iron gates, and in the centre, on the level of the Plaza, is the entrance to a Romanesque chapel, La Iglesia Baja, constructed under the portico and contemporary with the cathedral. To the north and south, and in a line with the west front, are dependent buildings of the 18th century, grouping well with it. Those to the south contain a light and elegant arcade to the upper windows, and serve as a screen to the cloisters, built in 1533 by Fonseca, afterwards archbishop of Toledo. They are said to be the largest in Spain, and are a fair example of the latest Gothic. The delicate sculpture over the heads of the windows and along the wall of the cloister is very noticeable. On the north of the cathedral is the Plazuela S. Juan, where the peasants collect to do their marketing. Here is the convent of S. Martin, built in 1636, which, after serving as a barrack, is now used as an ecclesiastical seminary, restored to the church. It has