| ÁREA
CENTRAL is a multipurpose civic complex, located in a single
building, consisting of a Shopping Centre, several office
blocks, a 3-star hotel with 80 rooms and suites, 656 private
apartments and 1,600 public parking spaces.
The
Shopping Centre, occupying an area 30,000 m2 of Gross Leasable
Area (the largest in Galicia and one of the largest in Northern
Spain), comprises two floors and a lower ground floor with
a square shapped mall (658 metres wide), covered with a
glass vaulted ceiling (20m high).
It has more than 160 shops open to the public, including
an Alcampo hypermarket.
The offices are structured
in five independent blocks, with a total surface of 15,412m2.
They house several administrative departments of the "Xunta
de Galicia", such as the Galician Institute of Housing,
Directorate General offices for Transport, Ports and Justice,
the Galician Institute of Consumption, the Galician Institute
of Technical Medicine, the Equality between Men and Women
Service, Galicia Quality and several large private companies.
For the past five centuries Santiago has been an outstanding
university centre and a significant part of city life has
been developed around its sizeable university population,
currently consisting of around 40,000 students and professors.
The importance of this university population is unquestionable,
not only because of the impact its members have on the daily
cultural and business life of the town, but also because
they are constructing the future of our society.
We cannot talk about Santiago without mentioning its importance
as town of religious pilgrimage and relentless tourism,
declared Historical Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, and
with a religious significance that places it among the most
representative cities in the Catholic world, together with
Rome and Jerusalem.
|