MY COLUMNS ARE NORMALLY about architecture in England. But having recently been to a conference about architectural history in Santiago de Compostela, I want to reflect on the experience of visiting a city which is so remarkably well preserved as a historic environment and manages to avoid (mostly) being just a tourist city, cared for and protected by its inhabitants.
I arrived in the early afternoon before the conference started and so had a couple of hours to wander round. I was astonished by how intact it is — the
