"It is a square of "considerable" size, as Professor Celestino García-Braña pointed out, and the door is located there or Mazarelos arch, which formerly allowed travelers from Orense? to enter Santiago de Compostela and is the only one of the doors of the wall of Santiago de Compostela that has survived to this day, since the rest of it was demolished between the 18th and 19th centuries.
Historia
In the Middle Ages, the pilgrims who arrived to Santiago de Compostela from the city of Mérida and along the Vía de la Plata they entered Santiago through the Mazarelos gate, which was also the place where the Ribeiro wines entered from the city of Orense, as recorded in chapter IX of the famous Codex Calixtinus, cited by Miguel Etayo Gordejuela:
The city of Compostela is located between two rivers called Sar and Sarela. The Sar is located to the east between Monte del Gozo and the city, and the Sarela to the west. The entrances and gates of the city are seven. The first entrance is called the French Door; the second, Puerta de la Peña; the third, Puerta de Sofrades; the fourth, Puerta del Santo Peregrino; the fifth, Puerta Falguera, which leads to Padrón; the sixth, Gate of Susannis; and the seventh, Mazarelos Gate, through which the precious liquor of Bacchus arrives to the city.
There is evidence that in the Middle Ages several coin changers lived in the square, and also that the Mazarelos gate was one of the most frequented by passers-by and transporters of goods, since the road that linked Santiago de Compostela with , and through it the Castilian cereals and wines from Ribeiro and the valley of Ulla.
In 1384 the archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Juan García Manrique, and the count Pedro Enríquez of Castile, who was the grandson of king Alfonso XI of Castile maravedís? it was established that Count Pedro Enríquez should return all those properties to the Compostela archbishop within a period of thirty days from the publication of the sentence, and pay the costs of the process, which amounted to one thousand three hundred and fifty-five. nine on the lawsuit on March 17,1384 Torrijos, and doctors Álvar Martínez, Juan Alfonso and Pero Fernández. And in the sentence that was pronounced in Gutierre de Toledobishop of Oviedo, the Pedro TenorioRoyal Courtarchbishop of Toledo being at that time the hearers, the Royal Court The lawsuit was attempted to be resolved before the , which was claimed by both magnates along with the lands in that area.Barreira tower and the Castro de Montes, started a lawsuit for the possession of various properties, including some houses in the Plaza de las Mazarelas in Santiago, the fortress and the territory of Sarria and Lemos, count of Trastámara and
But despite the fact that in the sentence issued in Torrijos in 1384 it had been established that all those assets should be returned to the Compostela archbishop by the count of Trastámara, the latter, who until 1383 was also pertiguero mayor of Santiago, alleging various rights and arguing "one pretext after another", managed to postpone the application of the sentence and retained all those assets, since in the case of the houses in the plaza de las Mazarelas alleged that considerable work had been carried out on them at his expense, although he admitted that he had taken them illegally and by his "own authority."
But on November 24, 1388, when Archbishop Juan García Manrique and Count Pedro Enríquez were in Medina del Campo, both agreed to submit to the verdict issued by a commission, which was granted broad powers, which was composed of Lope Gómez de Lira, Fernán Pérez de Andrade and Juan Rodríguez de Biedma , and it was established that this commission or court would have the power to enforce the verdict established regarding the destination of those assets and to sanction a fine of 10,000 Castilian gold doubles to the archbishop or the count in case any of them did not submit to the established verdict.
And on December 10, 1388, in Medina del Campo, the members of the aforementioned commission ruled that the Count of Trastámara had never had "any right" over the houses in the Plaza de las Mazarelas, therefore that he was forced to return them to the archbishop along with other properties and to get his wife, the countess Isabel de Castro, to accept the sentence and undertake to respect it in the future. However, the sentence was not totally unfavorable for the count, since to prevent "discords and strife" from occurring in the future et debates" it was established that the archbishop would deliver to the count in two consecutive installments 300 silver marks in concept of the sums that the count had invested in those properties and another 30,000 maravedís “of the old coin” for what he had spent in the houses in the Plaza de las Mazarelas.
In a 1595 map of the city of Santiago de Compostela, which is preserved in the Archivo General de Simancas, the Plaza de Mazarelos is present and constitutes, like other prominent squares and buildings in the city, a "reference" for it, and from this is derived the that the name of the square has survived to this day.
Buildings
In the Plaza de Mazarelos, also called Plaza de la Universidad, there are the following buildings:
Faculty of Geography and History. Previously, the building was occupied by the Faculty of Law.
Faculty of Philosophy (before Philology). It was built by the Galician architect Simón Rodríguez in the 18th century.
Church of the University, also known as Church of the Jesuits. It houses a baroque altarpiece from the 18th century 18th century built by the architect Simón Rodríguez, and is currently an exhibition center for the Company of Jesus.
Pazo de Mazarelos. It currently houses the Secretary of Tourism of the Junta de Galicia.
In front of the faculty is the statue of the politician and jurist Eugenio Montero Rios, who in In 2006 it was returned to its original location, Plaza del Obradoiro, although it was later moved back to Plaza de Mazarelos, where it is located. currently."
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