Libredón
Legendary mountain and forest in Galicia
Libredón was a forest, sometimes also described as a mountain, near Santiago de Compostela that according to legend, is where the body of Saint James was laid to rest. There is a belief that the forest was located at the Oak grove of Santa Susana, a hill in Santiago de Compostela that is part of the Parque da Alameda de Santiago de Compostela.
Background
The legend surrounding the life of the apostle says that Saint James preached the gospel in Hispania as well as in the Holy Land; after returning to Israel he was martyred at the orders of Herod Agrippa. His disciples carried his body by sea to Hispania, where they landed at Padrón on the coast of Galicia.
In 1139, in Book III: Transfer of the body to Santiago in the Codex Calixtinus, describes the journey of Theodore and Athanasius, the disciples of Saint James, as they moved his body from Padrón in a cart pulled by oxen to the Libredón forest (previously Liberum Donum), where he was buried. The journey is also described in stories involving Queen Lupa.
The place was forgotten until, in the 9th century, Pelagius the Hermit saw some lights that illuminated the forest. He advised Theodemir, bishop of Iria Flavia. They found a small chapel with an altar and a crypt (the Arca Marmarica) in which there were three tombs, that of Santiago and that of his two disciples. He informed the king of Galicia, Alfonso the Chaste, who traveled from Oviedo along what is called the Camino Primitivo, to verify that the bones corresponded to those of the apostle.
“Libredón” enters the record as legendary mountain and forest in Galicia. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Libredón, Legendary and mountain can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Libredón” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Libredón, Legendary and mountain provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12391805. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1139.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Libredón” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.