The Vatican has its famous and grand two-spiral Bramante stair, and there are other examples of double-spiral stairs throughout the world; for example, Calling Alice (San Francisco) and Edificio Cuervo Rubio (Havana, Cuba) are images I’ve made based on two-spiral staircases. But as far as I know, Santiago de Compostela boasts the only three-spiral staircase. At least the only one I have ever seen or heard of. Please let me know if there are others I’ve missed.
The image above is looking up, and the image below was a quick high ISO photo with a gaggle of kids from a class trip looking up at me!
I really like Santiago de Compostela very much. Not only does it have a triple-spiral stair, it also has a wonderful old town, a university population, and a constant flow of colorful incoming Camino pilgrims.
When the Camino de Santiago first became a pilgrimage, it was thought of as a walk to the edge of the unknown. Remember, Columbus was still centuries in the future at that point, and the apparently endless Atlantic lies only a short distance beyond Santiago. So pilgrims came laboriously from all over the known world to get a taste of the unknown.
For me, walking to this city still has a bit of the edgy feeling of contemplating what comes after all that is known.
Carla Edwards
25 Nov 2018Hi Harold, I just finished reading your blog on The Camino. Quite the interesting pilgrimage. I’m very glad you wrote about it, showed your lovely pictures, and that I chanced on your blog. My son is thinking of hiking the Camino when he visits Spain next summer.
Thanks.
Carla
Wioletta
20 Sep 2022Hi Harold,
There is one in Dover – Grand shaft staircase. Managed to visit it last weekend. Great to know there are more of those around the world 🙂
Denny Smith
27 Sep 2023What a fantastic idea–even fabulous, in an appeal to the literal meaning of fabled–to capture what is arguably the most lyrically beautiful element in all of architecture. What must have begun as a simply practical solution to limited space, the spiral negotiates both the vertical and horizontal dimensions, but minimizes the “wasted” horizontality of traditional, diagonal stairs. There is a special spiral stairway I’d love you to see if you haven’t–the stairwell in the Mechanic’s Library of San Francisco. (This city loves all things spiral, again by reason of enjoying far more vertical than horizontal real estate!)
Harold Davis
27 Sep 2023Thanks Denny! I live across the Bay from San Francisco, so have enjoyed photographing the Mechanics Institute spiral stair. Here’s a link to my images: https://www.digitalfieldguide.com/blog/10380
Pingback: Design Pattern: Criss-Cross Stairs – Harold Davis