The town of Padrón lies about 25km south of Santiago de Compostela (for those of you who use alternative measurement systems, in miles that’s 15.5, or in Camino it’s a day’s walk), and is perhaps best known internationally for the pimientos de Padrón (Padrón peppers), small peppers fried in oil until they blister and are then sprinkled with salt and eaten as tapas. In Jacobean lore, this town on the river Sar is where the ship carrying Santiago’s/St James’ body supposedly miraculously docked on its own, after which his disciples journeyed on to bury it at the divinely ordained spot that is now the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Inside the Igrexa de Santiago (church of St James) in Padrón, the supposed mooring post to which the ship was tied now lies beneath the altar.
The Camino Portugués runs south-north through the town parallel to the river, but over the bridge by the igrexa de Santiago, and to the west (lefthand side), is Monte Santiaguiño/Santiaguiño do Monte, a hill accessible by a series of steps. A photo of the cross at the top of the hill was used by the late John Brierley as the cover photo to his guide to the Camino Portugués, and as he points out the site has an interesting (and perhaps unique) association with the life of Santiago, rather than with his death or posthumous miracles/cult, as Santiago is said to have preached at this site, during his time in Iberia.
The hill has a hermitage (reconstructed in the nineteenth century), which like many hermitages in towns across Spain (or rather just outside towns across Spain) is the site of a romería or short local pilgrimage, where various traditions and practices have grown up, e.g. the fountain by the hermitage is said to have sprung up when Santiago struck the ground with his staff to quench the thirst of a woman who showed him kindness and its water is considered to have healing powers when gathered at particular times. Another such tradition is that pilgrims have to climb over a series of rocks by the hermitage, and if they don’t do so while alive, they will have to return to do so after death.
From the little I saw in the early morning, Padrón seems like a nice town and would be worth returning to anyway, dead or alive.
Denis Casey 