Labacolla

Labacolla is a locality in the municipality of Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Galicia, on the Camino Frances on the final approach to the city. The name is historically interpreted as a compound of lavar, to wash, and cola, the posterior, reflecting the medieval tradition that pilgrims would bathe in the stream here before entering Santiago as an act of ritual purification before approaching the cathedral and the relics of Saint James.

The stream of Labacolla is a small watercourse flowing through the forest on the approach to the Monte do Gozo. The site was documented in the twelfth-century Codex Calixtinus as the customary washing place for pilgrims, and the ritual bathing tradition gave the locality its lasting toponym.

For pilgrims, Labacolla is one of the most historically resonant place names on the final stage, its function as a ritual threshold connecting the contemporary walk to the deepest medieval layer of the pilgrimage tradition.