The Botafumeiro: what was it really for?

What is the Botafumeiro?

A censer, and a huge one: a thurible, in other words, an incense burner swung on a chain. According to the Cathedral, the name itself simply means "censer" in Galician. It hangs from a system of pulleys in the main dome, some twenty metres up, and swings across the transept, the arm of the church that links the north and south doors. It's moved by eight men, the tiraboleiros, hauling on a rope. The Cathedral counts it among its most famous and popular symbols.

What is the Botafumeiro for, according to the Cathedral?

The Cathedral is quite clear about it: this is a liturgical object. It does what any censer does at Mass, just on a grand scale. And it gives it a symbolic meaning. The incense smoke rising to the top of the naves stands for the prayers of the pilgrims rising up to God. And the fragrance that fills the whole basilica is an image of how Christians, through the way they live, should fill the society around them with the good scent of Christ.

Notice the detail. The official explanation does talk about smell. But about a good smell, as a symbol, not anybody's bad one.

So what about the smell of the pilgrims?

It's the popular explanation: that the great censer was there to mask the smell of newly arrived pilgrims. It sounds reasonable. The trouble is that we haven't found it in any of the papers that tell the Botafumeiro's story. Look at what the sources say:

• The first mention, a medieval note, describes it in processions, loaded with embers and incense.
• The account from 1501 places it at a solemn Mass, with the church packed.
• The minutes of 1602, when the cathedral chapter could have got rid of it, explain why they didn't: so as not to lose an old relic.
• The Cathedral today talks about liturgy and symbolism.

Not one of them mentions the smell of pilgrims. That doesn't prove nobody ever thought of it in all those centuries. But it does show it isn't the reason given by the people who used it. Where the explanation comes from, and how long it's been told, we don't know.

How old is the Botafumeiro?

The first reference is a note written by a later hand in the margin of the Codex Calixtinus, the Cathedral's great medieval manuscript. It describes a large silver censer, suspended high up in the church, that ran "on wheels" from the north portal right across to the south one, loaded with embers and incense. The Cathedral says it's called the Turibulum Magnum there: the great censer.

How old is the note? There's no exact date. A canon who wrote the Cathedral's history concluded from it that the great censer came into use around the fourteenth century. So the swinging has at least several centuries behind it.

Has the Botafumeiro ever fallen?

Yes, and in front of a royal audience. It happened in 1501, a jubilee year. Princess Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was passing through Santiago on her way to England to marry Prince Arthur, and she stayed on for the Apostle's feast day. An old document says the Cathedral was so crowded that you couldn't have fitted anyone else in.

In the middle of the ceremony, the censer was swinging back and forth between the two doors of the transept, hanging from thick iron chains. The text compares it to a great cauldron. And the chains snapped. It shot off, the document says, as if someone had fired a cannon, escaped through one of the doors without dropping a single ember and broke into pieces there. Nobody was hurt.

Which door? The document doesn't say. There's a version going round that it smashed into the Platerías door, and another that puts the whole thing in 1499. Neither is in the account.

Why didn't they get rid of it?

A century later, the cathedral chapter had the perfect excuse to be rid of it. On 21 May 1602 it agreed to take down the framework of beams that crossed the dome and held the pulley, because it was cutting off light to the choir. That could have been the end of it. But the minutes add that a four-armed iron frame should be made to keep it hanging, so that the censer, which they call an antigualla, an old-fashioned relic, wouldn't be lost. The work went to the ironworks of Biscay, because it came cheaper, and a wooden model was made for them to follow, which was first set up in the cloister for everyone to see.

Look at the reason the minutes give. Nothing about smells or cleanliness. It's about not losing an old relic, something from another time. That's exactly why they kept it.

What is it made of, and how much does it weigh?

The everyday one is brass. José Losada made it in 1851, because its predecessor had been stolen during the French occupation. There's also a silver replica, from 1971.

So the idea that the Botafumeiro "is made of silver" is only half true. The medieval note did describe a silver censer; the everyday one today is brass.

And the weight? According to the Cathedral, 53 kilos, and it's 1.5 metres high. Elsewhere online you'll see figures between 62 and 100 kilos; we'll go with the Cathedral's. Speed is a similar story: the Cathedral just says it can pick up great speed, without giving any figures.

Fact or legend?

• Fact: the Botafumeiro is a liturgical censer. The first mention of it is a note in the margin of the Codex Calixtinus, which a historian linked to the fourteenth century. In 1501, while Princess Catherine was in Santiago, its chains broke and it flew out through a door without hurting anyone. In 1602 the cathedral chapter kept it so as not to lose an "antigualla", an old relic. The one in normal use is brass, from 1851, and there's a silver replica from 1971.
• What the Cathedral explains: its religious meaning, with the smoke as an image of prayer rising.
• Not supported by anything we've read: that it was meant to mask the smell of the pilgrims. No old document in its history mentions it.
• Errors doing the rounds: that the accident happened in 1499 or against the Platerías door, that today's Botafumeiro is silver, weights of up to 100 kilos and speeds with no source.

Where to hear it

Podtour tells the story of the Botafumeiro on the route "The Camino Arrives in Compostela", at the stop "The Incense Burner That Went Flying", in front of the Azabachería façade, the Cathedral's north door: one of the two ends of the transept it swings between. You listen to it from the square, with no need to go inside.

Santiago's free route, "Santiago Cathedral and Its Squares", circles the outside of the building in twelve stops. And if you're planning your trip, our Santiago de Compostela guide has the practical side covered.

Further reading

• Santiago Cathedral, "Masses, Confessions, Botafumeiro", official liturgy page: https://catedraldesantiago.es/en/liturgy/
• Antonio López Ferreiro, Historia de la Santa A. M. Iglesia de Santiago de Compostela, vol. VI (Santiago, 1903), pp. 292–293, on the note in the Codex Calixtinus (in Spanish): https://archive.org/details/historiadelasanta06lpez
• Antonio López Ferreiro, same work, vol. VII (Santiago, 1904), pp. 410–411, n. 3, with the account of the 1501 accident (in Spanish): https://archive.org/details/historiadelasanta07lpez
• Antonio López Ferreiro, same work, vol. VIII (Santiago, 1905), appendix LVI, pp. 218–220, with the minutes of 1602 (in Spanish): https://archive.org/details/historiadelasanta08lpez