Camino de Santiago

• 1. The Worn Pillar

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  The Camino de Santiago, also called the Way of St. James, is a network of pilgrim routes that converge on a single cathedral in Galicia, in northwestern Spain. Just inside the doorway of that cathedral in Santiago de Compostela stands a pillar. Tradition says arriving pilgrims lay a hand on it. So many have done so that the stone is visibly worn away.

  The cathedral is said to hold the remains of the apostle James. People walk toward it for spiritual growth, for exercise, or simply to step out of ordinary life. Hikers, cyclists and organized tour groups share the paths with the devout.

  This documentary asks how a claim about a burial turned into a destination for a whole continent. It asks why a seashell marks the way, and what a walker must show to prove the journey is finished. It also asks how a road that once fell into decline came to carry hundreds of thousands of people a year.

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• 2. Tomb Legends

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  James the Great is said to have made his last journey by boat, carried from Jerusalem to northern Spain. Legend places his burial in what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela. The route to his shrine was created at the beginning of the 9th century, following the discovery of his relics.

  Spanish legends add a detail about the saint's earlier life. They say James had spent time preaching the gospel in Spain. He went back to Judaea after a vision of the Virgin Mary appeared to him on the bank of the Ebro River.

  Another account begins with a hermit who saw a bright star shining over a hillside near San Fiz de Solovio. He reported it to the bishop of Iria Flavia. The bishop found a grave at the site holding three bodies. He asserted that one of them was James.

  The place was then called Campus Stellae, the field of the star. Over time the words were corrupted into Compostela. A different myth about the sea voyage explains why a humble shell became the badge of every walker.

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• 3. Scallop and Staff

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  The daughter of Queen Lupa was being married on the shore when a ship came into view, according to one myth. The ship carried the body of James and was piloted by an angel. It was heading for what is now Libredón. The young groom, mounted on a horse, watched it approach. The horse was spooked and plunged into the sea with its rider. Through a miracle, both came out alive and covered in seashells.

  The scallop shell is a common find on Galician shores, and it has long been the emblem of the Camino. Pilgrims wear it, and it serves as a waymarker along the trail. Over the centuries it gathered metaphorical, practical and mythical meanings. It came to signify pilgrimage, both to a particular shrine and toward heaven. That idea recalls Hebrews 11:13, which says Christians "are pilgrims and strangers on the earth".

  The practical origin may be plainer. In the medieval period the shell was less a symbol worn on the road than proof of finishing it. Those returning from Compostela carried home a Galician scallop, and the habit slowly made the shell a pilgrim's badge. Its appeal may simply have come from walkers wanting a souvenir.

  Some walkers also carry a pilgrim's staff, a walking stick that usually has a hook for hanging things. Others have a crosspiece. The staff goes by several names, including pilgrim's crutch and crutch-staff. One view holds that a true crutch should carry its crosspiece on top, like the letter T, rather than across the shaft. Those who carried such gear followed a path far older than the saint's cult.

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• 4. Road Under the Stars

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  The Romans named Cape Finisterre Finisterrae, which in Latin means the end of the world, or Land's End. The main pilgrim route follows an older Roman trade road that runs on to the Atlantic coast of Galicia and stops at that cape. We now know that Cabo da Roca in Portugal lies farther west than Spain's westernmost point. The Roman name shows what they believed.

  French speakers called the route the Voie lactée, the Milky Way, because that band of stars seems to point the way at night. In Spain, the popular name for the Milky Way itself is El Camino de Santiago. A common medieval legend said the dust raised by travelling pilgrims formed it.

  Charlemagne has a part in this sky-borne story. In Book IV of the Book of Saint James, the saint appears to him in a dream. James urges him to free the tomb from the Moors. He shows Charlemagne the direction to follow by the route of the Milky Way.

  That dream is legend, but real visitors left real records. The first of them come from the Kingdom of Asturias and Galicia.

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• 5. Medieval Pilgrims

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  Pilgrims from beyond the Pyrenees first appear in the records in the middle of the 11th century. Large numbers of foreigners did not travel there regularly until about a century later. Visitors from England are recorded between 1092 and 1105. By the early 12th century, the pilgrimage had become a highly organized affair. Pope Callixtus II, one of its great champions, started the Compostelan Holy Years.

  Towns such as Hospital de Órbigo still carry the memory of the hospitals that served the road. A series of them met the daily needs of pilgrims travelling to and from Compostela. These institutions helped shape the modern idea of a hospital. Catholic orders often staffed them under royal protection. Donations were encouraged, yet many poorer pilgrims had few clothes and poor health. Some barely reached the next hospital. María Ramírez de Medrano responded by founding one of the earliest, San Juan de Acre in Navarrete, along with a commandery to protect pilgrims.

  The Kingdom of France supplied most of the walkers and much of the safety. Its protection and freedom made the route possible. Enterprising French settlers, including Gascons and other peoples outside the French crown, founded towns along the way, and their names appear in the archives. Domingo de la Calzada tended pilgrims and was later recognized as a saint. Romanesque architecture, a new style of church building, used massive archways to handle the crowds. Vendors sold badges and souvenirs, the early cousins of modern tourist trinkets.

  Pilgrims often prayed to Saint Roch, whose many depictions beside the Cross of St James can still be seen along the Way. Walkers spent months on the road, and occasionally years. Many reached the great church in the main square of Compostela with very little, after illness or robbery or both.

  Not everyone walked by choice. A priest could impose a long pilgrimage as penance after confession, and such journeys suited very serious sins. The registers of the Inquisition at Carcassone name four places as centres of the greater penitential pilgrimages: the tombs of the Apostles at Rome, the shrine of St. James at Compostela, the body of St. Thomas at Canterbury, and the relics of the Three Kings at Cologne. Courts could also impose a pilgrimage as punishment. In Flanders, one prisoner a year is still pardoned and released on condition that he walks to Santiago with a guard, wearing a heavy backpack.

  After the Granada War ended in 1492, under Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, Pope Alexander VI declared the Camino one of the "three great pilgrimages of Christendom". The other two were Jerusalem and the Via Francigena to Rome. A plenary indulgence could be earned on the way. Yet the Black Death, the Protestant Reformation and political unrest in 16th-century Europe led to the route's decline.

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• 6. Routes and Lodging

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  Around 1140 the Codex Calixtinus gave medieval pilgrims their official guide. Its fifth book is still treated as the definitive source for many modern guidebooks. It lists four routes that start in France and meet at Puente la Reina. From there a well-defined path crosses northern Spain through Burgos, Carrión de los Condes, Sahagún, León and Astorga to Compostela.

  Because of that codex, most medieval pilgrims came from France, typically from Arles, Le Puy, Paris and Vézelay, with some from Saint Gilles. Cluny, home of a celebrated medieval abbey, was another rallying point. In 2002 it was folded into the official European route linking Vézelay and Le Puy.

  The Camino Francés, or French Way, is the most popular today. Most Spaniards consider the French border in the Pyrenees its natural starting point. The usual modern start is Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on the French side, with Roncesvalles on the Spanish side also popular. From Roncesvalles through León to Santiago is about 800 km, and the terrain is mostly flat.

  The Camino Primitivo, or Original Way, begins in Oviedo and was first taken in the 9th century. It is 320 km (199 miles) long. The Camino Portugués, or Portuguese Way, is the second most popular. It starts at the cathedral in Lisbon, for about 610 km, or at the cathedral in Porto, for about 227 km, and enters Galicia at Valença.

  The Camino del Norte begins in the Basque city of Irun, or sometimes in San Sebastián, and follows the coast along the Bay of Biscay. From Irun it runs 817 km (508 miles). Its changes in elevation make it less popular, and it passes fewer historic sights, but its summers are cooler. It is believed to have first served pilgrims avoiding Muslim-held territory in the Middle Ages. Farther east, the Central European Camino was revived after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Its medieval routes pass through Poland, reach Vilnius in the Baltic states, and run toward Lviv in Ukraine, taking in Sandomierz and Kraków.

  The Pilgrim's Office published the 2024 split by route. The Francés took 47 percent, the Portugués 19 percent, and the Portuguese Costa 15 percent. The Inglés took 5.6 percent, the Primitivo 4.9 percent, and the Norte 4.3 percent.

  In Spain, hostels for walkers are called refugios or albergues, and they resemble youth hostels or the French gîtes d'étape. A parish, a local council, private owners or a pilgrims' association may run one. The refugio at the Monastery of San Xulián de Samos is run by monks. The last stop is the Hostal de los Reyes Católicos in the Plaza del Obradoiro, opposite the cathedral. Isabella I and Ferdinand II built it as a hospice and hospital. Today it is a five-star Parador hotel that still offers free services to a limited number of pilgrims daily.

  A bed at most of these hostels depends on a small document that every walker carries.

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• 7. Proof of Passage

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  The credencial, nicknamed the pilgrim's passport, is a document most walkers buy before setting out. Each town or refugio stamps it with the official St. James stamp. It records where the pilgrim ate or slept. It also proves to the Pilgrim's Office in Santiago that the route followed was an official one.

  That proof leads to the compostela, a certificate of completion. A walker must cover the last 100 km on foot or horseback, or the last 200 km by bicycle, and collect enough stamps. The motive must be religious or spiritual, or at least an attitude of search. In practice, Sarria is the convenient place to begin on foot, thanks to its bus and rail links. In 2024-32 percent of pilgrims started there.

  The Latin certificate names the cathedral chapter and confirms a visit made "for the sake of pious devotion". A simpler Spanish version exists for those with non-religious motives. It welcomes the walker to the tomb of the apostle and wishes that he may grant the graces of the pilgrimage. The Pilgrim's Office issues more than 100,000 compostelas a year to pilgrims from more than 100 countries. Not everyone who walks receives one. The compostela has carried an indulgence since the Early Middle Ages, and still does during Holy Years.

  Whenever St James's Day, the 25th of July, falls on a Sunday, the cathedral declares a Holy Year. This is different from a Jubilee Year, which comes every 25 or 50 years, with extraordinary jubilees added as needed. Because of leap years, Holy Years come at intervals of 5, 6 and 11 years. The most recent were 1993, 1999, 2004-2010 and 2021. The next will be in 2027.

  Every day at 12:00 and 19:30, a Pilgrim's Mass is held in the cathedral. Pilgrims who received the compostela the day before have their countries of origin and starting points announced. The Botafumeiro, one of the largest censers in the world, is operated during certain Solemnities and on every Friday except Good Friday, at 19:30. Priests hear confession in many languages. In the Holy Year of 2010, the Mass was held four times a day, at 10:00, 12:00, 18:00 and 19:30, for the larger crowds.

  The archives of Santiago show how far those crowds have grown. In the Holy Year of 1985, they counted just 690 pilgrims.

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• 8. The Long Revival

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  In 1779, John Adams, who would become the second President of the United States, landed at Finisterre with his two sons. Congress had ordered him to Paris to obtain funds for the American Revolution, but his ship started leaking. He crossed Spain overland and so followed the Way of St. James in the reverse direction. He did not stop at Santiago and later regretted it. In his autobiography he described the customs and lodgings offered to pilgrims in the 18th century.

  Adams also recorded the legend as it was told to him. A shepherd saw a bright light there at night, and an archbishop learned that James lay buried on the spot. During the time of the Moors, the people vowed to give part of their land income to the saint if the Moors were driven out. Adams heard that James fought in that battle on horseback, with a drawn sword, at the head of the Spanish troops. He noted that great numbers of pilgrims came every year from France, Spain, Italy and elsewhere, many on foot.

  Few modern pilgrimages predate 1957, when the Irish Hispanist and traveller Walter Starkie published The Road to Santiago. The Spanish government of Francisco Franco, keen to promote the country's Catholic history, supported the revival. One account holds that the pilgrimage regained its medieval popularity only in the 1990s. The archives agree. They count 4,918 pilgrims in 1990 and 9,764 in 1992. In 1993, after an investment and advertising campaign by the Xunta de Galicia, the count reached 99,436, roughly ten times the previous year.

  Official recognition followed. In 1987 the Council of Europe declared the Camino, which spans routes in Spain, France and Portugal, its first Cultural Route. UNESCO inscribed the French Way and the Northern routes in Spain on the World Heritage List, and added the routes in France in 1998. It cited their importance to Christianity and their role in the exchange of ideas and cultures.

  Since 2013, more than 200,000 pilgrims have arrived each year, with annual growth above 10 percent. The total passed 300,000 in 2017, and in 2019 it reached 347,578. The COVID-19 pandemic cut the figure to 54,144 in 2020. By 2022 it had rebounded to 437,507.

  Most walkers go on foot, a few by bicycle, and some by horseback or donkey, as their medieval counterparts did. Many choose to walk only the last 100 km, which takes most people 5-7 days. In 2024-93 percent of pilgrims walked and 4.6 percent cycled. Spanish pilgrims made up 44 percent, followed by US-Americans at 8 percent, Italians at 6 percent, Germans at 4.9 percent and Portuguese at 4.6 percent. Most arrive between May and September.

  The road has also drawn filmmakers. In The Milky Way, released in 1969, the surrealist director Luis Buñuel sent modern pilgrims through encounters with Catholic dogma and heresy in order to critique the church. In 2003, the art critic Brian Sewell travelled the French route by car for the UK's Channel Five series The Naked Pilgrim. A lapsed Catholic, he was moved by the stories of other pilgrims. In The Way, from 2010, Emilio Estevez wrote and directed Martin Sheen as a father who takes up the pilgrimage after his son dies early along the route. In 2014, Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago followed six pilgrims from France to Santiago.

  The archives counted 499,239 arrivals in 2024, the largest figure in the whole series, and every new walker adds to it.

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