Santiago de Compostela

The toponym is built in two stages. Santiago is the Romance lexicalisation of Latin Sancti Iacobi —⁠genitive of Sanctus Iacobus⁠—⁠; the fusion of the title and the apostle's name yielded Spanish Santiago, Portuguese São Tiago, Italian San Giacomo. The second element, Compostela, has given rise to one of the best-known onomastic debates of the Camino. The popular reading —⁠Campus Stellae, 'field of the star'⁠— is attested from the 12th century in the Historia Compostelana and reflects the founding legend: around 813, the hermit Pelayo observed lights and chants over the Libredón forest; the bishop of Iria, Theodemir, identified the site as the tomb of the apostle James. The scholarly reading, defended in the 20th century by Fernando López Alsina and others, derives the name from late Latin compositum (neuter participle of componere 'to bury, to lay together'), with the meaning 'cemetery': it would refer to the Roman necropolis on which the sanctuary was raised. Both readings coexist in the place's memory; academic manuals prefer the second, pilgrims the first.