Currently, the seat of the City Council of the city of Santiago de Compostela is the “Pazo Raxoi” or Palace of Rajoy, located on the west side of the Plaza de Obradoiro. In its origins it was built to be the residence and seminary for confessors and the children’s choir.
Of neoclassical style, it takes the name of the archbishop Bartolomé Rajoy Losada who in 1766 ordered its construction to the French engineer Carlos Lemaur.
Rajoy Palace is built on the space previously occupied by prisons and the city wall. In 1764 a project was presented to build a building to house the City Council, to which Archbishop Rajoy opposed. The Royal Hospital or the Hospital of the Catholic Kings also manifested their opposition alleging that the project encroached on part of its property.
The litigation between the three parties concluded with the decision in favor of maintaining the prisons and building on their sides the Consistory of Compostela and the Seminar of Confessors, work that was concluded in 1772.
In the center of the façade stands a pediment with a relief in marble depicting the Battle of “Clavijo” during the “Reconquista” wars between the Spaniards and the Muslims, and mounted on horseback the Apostle Santiago. The scene is mythical, since the apostle did not live the time of the Reconquest, although the legend tells of his appearance and miraculous intervention.
