Xacobeo 2027: the complete Holy Year guide

Why 2027 will be different

The starting point is already a record. In 2025, 530,987 pilgrims received a Compostela in Santiago, the highest figure for any completed year on record — the full breakdown is on our Camino statistics page. Far from slowing down, 2026, an ordinary year with the Holy Door still closed, has already passed it: 486,952 Compostelas were issued between January and September, up 7% on the same period in 2025, and with October only half counted the dashboard stands at 543,960 for the year, above the 530,717 the office counts for the whole of 2025. September alone accounted for 91,127 — the busiest month in the entire series, ahead of the Holy Year August of 2022. So the city has broken its record before the Holy Year has even started, with November and December still to be counted.

Past Holy Years suggest the multiplier effect is real: 272,135 pilgrims arrived in 2010, a Holy Year; in the extraordinary 2021-22 cycle — extended because of the pandemic — the figure went from 178,912 in the atypical 2021 to 438,308 in its 2022 extension, almost double. Starting from an already record-breaking base, 2027 has every ingredient to beat any previous figure, though — worth stressing — neither the Xunta nor the Archdiocese has published an official visitor forecast. The Xacobeo's commissioner, Marcos Gómez Román, talks about "the most successful and crowded Holy Year in history" without committing to a number.

What Galicia is preparing

The Xunta has allocated more than €125 million to Xacobeo 2027 and tourism, over €104 million of it from its own funds: €4 million to expand accommodation capacity, €7 million for energy efficiency in lodging and restaurants, an approximately €18 million two-year trail conservation contract, and €3 million for promotion. A separate program, "O teu Xacobeo," puts another €3 million toward small businesses for 2026-27.

The public albergue network is getting €12 million over two years, aiming for 79 public albergues and 3,592 beds; among the additions is a new albergue in Dozón, on the Vía de la Plata, with around 58 beds, timed to be ready before the 2027 high season.

The Archdiocese, meanwhile, presented an anti-overcrowding plan in May 2026, with the Cathedral still under restoration — the pilgrim's mass has been held, since 16 October 2026, in the church of San Agustín, except the 7:30 am one; the move to San Francisco and San Fiz belonged to the 2019-2021 works. The plan: decentralising pilgrim reception across several churches in the city, a sacred-music concert program, an official hymn, and a Diocesan Commission for the Holy Year created by decree. As a prelude, the summer of 2026 delivered more than 3,600 cultural activities across 200 Galician municipalities, with 56 projects specifically designed "in the spirit of the Xacobeo."

The motto, the poster and the two hymns

On 24 September 2026, at San Martín Pinario, Archbishop Francisco Prieto presented the jubilee's motto, visual identity and music. The motto is “Al ver la estrella, se llenaron de inmensa alegría” (Matthew 2:10) — “when they saw the star, they were filled with immense joy” — or, in Galician, “Ao ver a estrela, enchéronse de inmensa alegría”.

The poster and logo are by Fernando de Castro, and the symbol is not the scallop shell but the eight-pointed star from the botafumeiro’s mechanism, the one almost nobody looks at because it sits up in the pulley. The “27” comes from a reinterpretation of the masons’ marks on the Cathedral.

And there are twohymns, worth knowing before you go looking for “the” hymn and find one that sounds nothing like what you expected. The outreach one is called “Un campo cheo de estrelas”, written by the Galician musician Carlos Martínez Movilla, and it is already available in Galician and Spanish. The other is liturgical, for choir and organ, and premieres in December, most likely at the opening of the Holy Door itself.

Watch the video · 4:59: "Un campo lleno de estrellas" - Himno del Año Santo Compostelano 2027 (castellano)

Is the Pope coming to Santiago?

It's the question that comes up most, and it still has no official answer. Archbishop Francisco José Prieto Fernández has personally invited Pope Leo XIV to visit Santiago during the Holy Year. The Archdiocese says "the chances are solid," but the Vatican itself left the Pope's presence "up in the air". In mid-September 2026, sources close to the Pope — his biographer Rafael Lazcano, in El Correo Gallego on 15 September — said work on the visit is under way, for 2027 or, failing that, 2028. The Vatican has not confirmed it. Treat it as a real possibility, not a fact, until it's announced otherwise.