Holy Door (Santiago de Compostela)

The Holy Door (Spanish: Puerta Santa, Galician: Porta Santa), also known as the Door of Forgiveness (Galician: Porta do Perdón), is located at the rear of the Santiago de Compostela Archcathedral Basilica, in Galicia, Spain, and is opened only during a Jacobean Holy Year.

During the Holy Year it remains open so that pilgrims, and others, may enter from the Plaza de la Quintana into the apse of the cathedral.

Initially the door was known as the Porta de San Paio and was dedicated to St. Pelagius, for whom the monastery across the plaza is named.

It was completed in 1700 by Domingo de Andrade, who built some of the columns that span two floors of windows, a balustrade with large pinnacles, and an aedicula with an equestrian statue of Saint James (now gone), well adorned with decorative fruit clusters and large-scale military trophies.

At the sides of the door are twenty-four sculpted figures of prophets and apostles (including St. James) some of which had originally been part of the cathedral's stone choir [es] built in the workshop of sculptor Master Mateo.