This March, the Museum of the Roads offers a carving of St. James the Pilgrim from the parish church of Santiago, in the town of Justel, Zamora. The Gaudí Palace presents, coinciding with the feast of St. James, every 25th, the Piece of the Month, an initiative to show the works exhibited in the permanent collection. The Museum continues the tradition inaugurated on the occasion of the Jacobean Holy Year of showing pieces of the Diocese related to the tradition of St. James.
The different roads that crossed the north of Zamora and connected the south with the routes towards Compostela had, from the XIV century, a striking boom that generated dedications to Santiago el Mayor in churches such as Justel.
The work from Zamora has been kept and exhibited since 1968 in the Gaudí Palace as part of the large group of pieces that represent the Apostle as a pilgrim. Carved from a single block of wood, Santiago wears a plain tunic with a cincture around his waist and, over it, a blue cloak like a canopy, falling straight and forming small folds at the bottom. Wearing a gothic hat different from the traditional wide-brimmed one, his face denotes a certain coldness as he presents himself with a smooth beard and a hieratic look. Iconographically, he is represented in the traditional manner, with a staff in his right hand and holding a closed book in his left, which reminds us, once again, of his condition of defender and disseminator of the Word of God.
Carved at the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century, it shows an excellent state of preservation and is a good example of the popular sculpture that transited between the end of the Romanesque period and the Gothic stage in which naturalism gained ground in the conception of works such as this one.
This interesting piece from the Zamora area of the Diocese of Astorga can be contemplated in the Provisorato Room on the first floor of the Gaudí Palace, dedicated exclusively to the santiaguista phenomenon. It can be visited, as well as the monument, every day from 10:30 am to 2:00 pm in the mornings and from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm in the afternoons.