C/ Hórreo 1, 15701 Santiago de Compostela. A Coruña – España

The History of our Hotel

Hotel Compostela is situated facing Plaza de Galicia (Galicia Square) and its main entrance in Fuente de San Antonio Street.

Plaza of Galicia, situated South of the old city walls, became during the centuries the new entrance to Compostela. Entering the old city through the door know as “Porta da Mámoa”. From this point you can take the most important exits to different parts of the city. To the East the road that leads to A Coruña, West the road that goes to Pontevedra and Vigo and South the road that goes to Ourense and which also communicates with the railway station. All the travellers that reached this square where the bus station stood until the end of the 1970’s converted this area in a continuous coming and going of people. Surrounded by hotels, hostals and restaurants, it was here where the first hotels started and without a doubt the first HOTEL of the city of Santiago: the HOTEL COMPOSTELA.

The surface occupied by the Hotel Compostela was built around 1730 and promoted by the Benedictines of the Monastery “San Martín Pinario”. Built to accommodate the premises of the Faith Court – the “Santa Inquisición” – according to the traces of the architect Fernando Casas Novoa; author of the famous baroque facade of the Obradoiro of our Cathedral. The French Government (1809-1814) cancels the courts of the Inquisition and the absolutist government resets it in 1814.  From that moment and until the final abolition of the Institution in 1834 the building is used for various purposes, such as school for children, administration of revenues of the State, College of Pharmacy San Carlos with a hearty herbalist which Pourrel was part of and which had the precise things to study Pharmacy, Physics and Chemistry with significant collection of National History and which in the XX century shared their facilities with the Union Workers, the Galician typography workshops and, in an attached building “La Carrilana” with its garages. The original building was demolished in 1913 and a garage of the company “La Unión” was built according to the project by the architect López de Rego. Seven years later it was adapted to become a theatre with modern traces, “The Royalty Theatre”. In 1927 the building is knocked down in order to build the first major hotel of the city.

Antonio de Cominges architect from Vigo works on the best hotel in Santiago until its converted in the fifties from the Old Hospital of the “Reyes Católicos” into the current National Parador. It opened in 1929 and the advertising at that time boasted about being a first class establishment, built expressly for hotel with one hundred rooms, one hundred bathrooms all with hot and cold water at all hours, central heating, telephones and elevators. A luxury little imaginable in those times. Some of the illustrious guests are stayed at the hotel are: Mrs. Eva Perón, Dr. Gregorio Marañón, Majesty Mr. Alfonso XIII, Mr. García Lorca, Duke of Westminster, Mr. Valle Inclán, Mr. Carlos de Borbón and Mrs. Alicia de Borbón.

Famous in our society were the university student dances which were held in its halls and its restaurant and cafeteria with terrace facing the sun and the “Plaza de Galicia”. This was sadly eliminated in order to build an underground public parking. The cafeteria was also used as a quiet place to study in which a multitude of people from Santiago now older than 40 have studied their academic careers.

The building is on the Protection and Rehabilitation of the Historic City of Santiago de Compostela Plan were the protected elements appear such as the facade, the capitel of the column on the corner of the building, the shield, the balconies and grates and the cornices.

After many transformations we come to the Hotel ii is today.  Fruit of the past and adapted to the needs of the present. With an eye on the future to continue providing services with the same spirit of “First class Hotel” with which it was born in 1929.

 

Leave a comment