The pilgrim phenomenon was decisive in the cultural and economic shaping of the kingdom of Galicia, developed mainly during Diego Gelmirez's mandate (1100–1136) who successfully converted Compostela in metropolitan church (year 1122), the most important Christian dignity in Occident after Rome. Around the Apostolic tomb grew not only a cathedral – great center of artistic and religious life – but a village then a town, strongly established in the Middle Ages, with a commercial derivative of its status as a holy city, where were crowned Galician kings, where grew the great Galician-Portuguese lyric school, and where is located the capital of Galicia since the Middle Ages.
