Barcelona, Spain (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday began his second visit to Spain, where he prayed at the tomb of an apostle and planned to consecrate one of Barcelona's most famous sights -- the distinctive Gaudi-designed Sagrada Familia church.
The pope's first stop on his two-day trip is Santiago de Compostela, in Spain's northwestern tip, an important pilgrimage site for centuries.
The cathedral there was built 900 years ago atop what is said to be the tomb of St. James, an apostle of Jesus. After praying there, the pope presided over a Eucharist in the square outside, to celebrate the city's jubilee year.
"I come as a pilgrim on this Compostelean Saint Year ... I want to join to that long line of men and women that all over the centuries had come to [Santiago de] Compostela from different places on the peninsula and Europe," the pontiff said at the airport earlier in the day.
Saturday night, the pope planned to head all the way across Spain to Barcelona, the Catalan city on the Mediterranean.
Barcelona is home to the Sagrada Familia, or "holy family," church, still being built after more than 100 years. Benedict is expected to designate the church a basilica, a special honor in Roman Catholicism.
CNN
