Minor Santiago gives you a warm welcome

On the occasion of the Jacobean Year 2021-2022, Medieval Italy offers you an accompanied visit to the cult of St. James’ symbolic and traditional places, with a journey through the most authentic and ancient culture of the city.

The visit begins at the commemorative stone in the entrance to the Piazza del Duomo which came from Xunta de Galicia in 2019, a symbol par excellence of the bond between Pistoia and Santiago de Compostela.

Then, the pilgrims will be accompanied to the front of the San Zeno Cathedral to discover another two symbols of the Jubilee Year: the Compass Rose – a marble commemorative stone near the Cathedral’s Holy Door showing permanently the bond between Pistoia and its Spanish “twin” town, and the Holy Door itself: if believers pass through it, they will be able to obtain a plenary indulgence.

And it is precisely by passing through this entrance that you reach the most important part of this visit: the Chapel of St. James. It holds the exquisite Silver Altar, a monumental, masterpiece of goldsmith sacred art, made between 1287 and 1456 and dedicated to the Patron Saint, and the Reliquary, another exquisite silver masterpiece, made by Lorenzo Ghiberti and containing a bone fragment of St. James the Greater’s skull.