Route of Santiago de Compostela

One of my more indelible travel memories is of watching a truckload of pilgrims departing for the Hajj, joyfully singing and cheering as they left Luxor, Egypt, in October 2012. I thought about those pilgrims embarking on a pilgrimage as I hiked along some of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in Spain last month, and wondered whether the pilgrims starting off on the Camino felt similar joy as they started their journeys. The routes were great places for reflection and for enjoying the varied nature of the north of Spain. Although I traveled with a tour group, there was ample time to appreciate the trails in relative solitude, and even as we neared Santiago and more pilgrims appeared on the trails, it was still not terribly crowded in late May. In total, we spent six days hiking the routes: two days admiring the rugged coastal beauty of the Camino del Norte; two days crossing the hills of the original Camino Primitivo, which Asturian King Alfonso II established from Oviedo in the 9th century; and two days along the more traveled Camino Francés, which was the first section of the Camino in Spain inscribed on the World Heritage Site list. The weather was remarkably sunny and warm for the entire trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed the tranquility of the trails. While I didn't get to witness any of the pilgrims as they first embarked on the Camino, I can say with certainty that those I saw at Monte do Gozo, …

I visited this WHS in April-May 2016. I walked the Camino Frances from St Jean in France to Santiago de Compostela in 32 full walking days (775km). Walking from France, I missed the Somport pass which would take slightly more time. A lot of planning and mental training/endurance was required to complete this pilgrimage/WHS but I managed to fulfill my vow. First of all, I had to sacrifice a year's worth of leave to have enough time for the longest Camino. Secondly, I opted to walk in Spring which is by far less crowded/cooler but at the same time I had to bring a windbreaker jacket with me. In hindsight, this was a crucial decision as most probably I would not have completed the Camino Frances had I opted for summer (not only because of the heat especially across the meseta, but mostly because of the huge surge of pilgrims). Already towards the beginning of May, I walked by a couple of villages with no room/bed available in any albergue by 14:30 (the film The Way has drastically increased the number of North Americans!). To me the whole outstanding universal value of this WHS and/or pilgrimage is that there is no destination/landmark/monument which is worthy alone of such an effort. It is the whole route in itself that is truly outstanding as every pilgrim's experience and interaction with nature or with other pilgrims is unique and enriching. For example, in the last 150km, there are no major cathedrals/churches/chapels for a …

This site is emblematic of the question of what does it takes to tick off a site (does this one counts ?). It is a route (el camino) about 700 km long, from the French border in the Pyrenees mountains to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostella. The site boundaries includes the entire 700 km or so of camino and extend from 3 to 100 meters on both sides of the camino. It also includes about a few hundreds of associated monuments close to the camino.

Traditionnally, the pilgrimage needs to be done by foot, bicycle or on horse. To be validated, the pilgrims need only to cover the last 100 km, or 200 km on bicycle, and then recieve the compostela (the pilgrimage certificate).

Most people walking or cycling the camino nowadays are not religious. They do it for meditation, adventure or just for fun vacations.

I decided that I needed to complete the 700 km in order to tick off the site. Lacking time, I decided to cycle the route. I rented a bicycle in Roncevalles (the first village after the French border) and cycled all the way to Santiago. It took me 11 days, during which I almost didn't leave the boundaries of the site.

The camino is well indicted with yellow arrows or scallop painted on walls, stones or trees. A detailed map is therefore not necessary. It follows all kind of differents tracks, dirt roads or concrete roads, but all efforts are made to avoid …

It was about 5km outside of Sarria that I spoke to my first proper Pilgrim, or Perigrino as they are locally known. I was feeling pretty good having decided to walk the last 120km of the Pilgrimage Route to qualify for my Compestela and properly ‘tick off’ this world heritage site.

The South Korean Pergirno asked me “Where did you start walking from?”

“Sarria, I only just started, but I feel good an hour into the pilgrimage. How about you, where did you start?”

“Paris”

“Paris!”

“Yes, I started 3 months ago at Notre Dame”

We walked on talking, we passed a few full pilgrim hostels before eventually finding one with space. We ended up having to share a double mattress on the floor in a room crammed with 30 other perigrinos. Later settling down to a rather limp looking steak, I talked about how there was no hot water in the single shower for all 30+ of us.

A German on the next table turned to me

“Welcome to the Camino!”

And this was how life progressed for the next 3 days. Endlessly meeting and talking to a huge array of people; each with their own reasons for doing the Pilgrimage; some wanted a break from everyday stresses to sort out their direction in life; some for religious reasons and many just wanted to walk for the experience. I met and spoke to people from all over the world, but liberal European holiday allowances and the location meant that …

During my visits to the Route of Santiago I saw many groups of pilgrims walking and cycling towards Santiago de Compostela. I also met up with them at overnight stops where I noticed that restaurants were open to pilgrims at all hours, not just at traditional Spanish meal times. I did not walk the Route myself, but visited a number of the sites that were accessible by bus and train, such as:

Jaca, the cathedral, ayuntemento, citadel and St Michael's Bridge.

Puenta La Reina (Aragon), bridge

Najera, the Monastery of Sta Maria la Reale

Logrono, church of St James

Puenta La Reina (Navarra),the Roman bridge and the churches of St James and the Crucifixion

Estella, the church of San Pedro de la Rua

Santo Domingo de la Calzada, cathedral and hermitage

Fromista, the recently restored St Martin's church,

Astorga, the cathedral (closed) and Gaudi's episcopal palace

Leon, the cathedral and San Isidoro's church

Ponferrada, the Templar castle

One should only be allowed to tick this WHS if you’ve walked enough of the pilgrimage route to earn your Compostela certificate! That is: having walked or rode horseback at least the last 100km or cycled the last 200km. For my part, I have to admit that I haven’t reached Santiago de Compostela. Even not by car. After having visited Las Médulas in the morning, I decided that it would be too far to drive on to Santiago. So I went to Astorga instead, one of the major stops on the Route.

Astorga has two very fine works of architecture: the Episcopal Palace designed by Gaudí, and the Gothic Cathedral. Both are named specifically in the AB evaluation, so I guess it’s kosher to visit these buildings as representations of the works of faith and art that make up this WHS.

The Gaudí Palace looks like a church and now has a museum inside. The exhibition didn’t really do something for me, but it’s also a fine way to admire the architecture of the building from the inside. It was inspired by the rooms full of arches in the Mezquita of Cordoba. It has the same red/white striped pillars and stained glass windows.

I didn’t get into the Cathedral (closed), but its façade is very much worth checking out. It is extremely flashy!

I did not encounter many ‘pilgrims’ in Astorga or on the road, certainly not on foot. I do wonder however what it is …

My Spanish friend told me that “walking on the Camino de Compostela in whatever length is always special and good for you!”. From his words I decided to make a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, but I did not want to walk from Spanish border to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia which will consume a lot of time and faith that I did not have much. As my friend said “in whatever length is always special!”, I chose to walk from Monte do Gozo (Mount of Joy) to Santiago de Compostela which is the last section of the Camino and maybe the most important part for many pilgrims.

Monte do Gozo is the hill outside Santiago de Compostela providing a first view of the city with the spires of the cathedral, the end of the route. Reportedly that many pilgrims cried with joy when they reach this place, but as my visit was in winter there were no pilgrims at all just a hill with a big sculpture that built to commemorate the visit of the Pope to this holy town. Also I could not see the spires of the cathedral as most people claimed! From the hill, I had walked back to the town until I reached the square with the great cathedral. The cathedral is very beautiful and deservedly to be the end of the route. The interiors are very rich with details, and the golden altar of Saint John is just amazing and I believe these will …

Why on Earth is this inscribed as a separate site from Santiago de Compostela itself? So little of visual consequence was the UNESCO Web site apparently able to find along the route that it even uses a picture of the Cathedral at Santiago to introduce it! And then, of course, France has inscribed its part of the pilgrimage route separately (see my review) – making a total of 3 “Compostela” inscriptions in all.

I would not argue against inscribing the pilgrimage route. So significant was the journey and so long did it take that it is studded by buildings created to support the pilgrimage but by splitting the objective from the journey (and by splitting even that into 2) UNESCO and Spain/France have, in my view, belittled the totality. And for what – political reasons no doubt? Yet the entire route in both France and Spain has been designated as the first “European Cultural Itinerary” so cooperation was achieved in that case – why not in UNESCO? Spain’s policy regarding WHS nominations has always been to “share out” its sites across its Autonomous Regions and the Compostela Route gives 5 of them a “share”. (Interestingly the 3 regions making up the Basque autonomous community of Euskadi are alone, as of end 2005, in having no inscribed site - it is said that the Basques have not, for political reasons, participated in the Spanish nominating council). The French Compostela route lists 69 selected buildings out of a possible 800 but the …