Route of Santiago de Compostela
The Route of Santiago de Compostela comprises over 1800 historic buildings on the Christian pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The Route starts from the French-Spanish border, at either Roncesvalles or Canfranc.
Legend has that the remains of the apostle Saint James the Great are buried in the Santiago cathedral. His tomb was discovered in the 9th century. Pilgrims from all over southern Europe started flocking there in the 10th century. The pilgrimage became so popular in the 12th that it even got its own guidebook, Book V of the
Calixtine Codex.
The buildings on the Route consist of cathedrals, churches, monasteries, hospitals, inns and public works in 166 towns and villages.
Visit August 2009
One should only be allowed to tick this WHS off, 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 like to walk this Route. It does look very hot in July/August, and there also seem to be boring parts through industrial areas. And it is far, very far: 656 km from the French border to Santiago de Compostela. Maybe I have to read a detailed first hand account on it first, before I’ll embark on this once-in-a-lifetime experience myself.
More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery
Reviews
John Booth (New Zealand):
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 |
| Date posted: April 2010 |
Frederik Dawson (Netherlands):
 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 make all pilgrims quite happy to see this spectacular place after their long journeys.
As I tried the Camino experience for just less than 7 kilometers, I will not dare to draw any conclusion on this world heritage. I also didn’t know this experience was special or not, but I was quite sure that walking up and down the hills for 7 kilometers was good for my health. At least my friend words were proved to be true in some part. |
| Date posted: September 2006 |
Paul Tanner (UK):
 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 Spanish route follows a policy of inscribing the entire contiguous route from the 2 French frontier points to Santiago (and a 30 metre strip on each side!). This caused ICOMOS some problems (“It is difficult to evaluate given the criteria set out in the Operational Guidelines for the evaluation”) - but “guidelines” can always be ignored changed after the event if the political will is there!
If you reach Santiago de Compostela overland from the East you will almost certainly have followed part of the route. However, unless you are doing the journey as your own personal pilgrimage, you are unlikely to stop off at more than a few of the many pilgrimage related sites (the inscription mentions that there are “some 166 towns and villages ….and 1800 buildings along the route”). Santiago is a long way west of the main tourist areas of Northern Spain but the Spanish part of the route commences far to the east on the French frontier and we drove that part out of the foothills of the Pyrenees from Jaca to Estella past the 11th century bridge at Puente la Reina (photo). We then left it to follow the coast and visit the Picos de Europa rejoining at Lugo (also a WHS for its Roman walls) for the final part to Santiago. I remember the enormous Spanish horizons and speeding past the small groups of pilgrims dressed in monks habits walking the entire route.
Clearly we left a very large part of the Spanish route “unseen” but, if we do one day return to this area, I am afraid it will be to see the WHS at Burgos and San Millan rather than to follow more of the pilgrimage route. |
| Date posted: January 2006 |
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