St James Way
The Road to the Stars
The St James Way, Chemin de St Jacques, el Camino, Jakobs Weg, was declared the first European Cultural Route in October 1987 and inscribed as one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites in 1993, but pilgrims have been making their way to Santiago de Compostela since the 12th century - starting out from all corners of the earth and converging on a route that traces the path of the Milky Way, east to west, and into the sea at Finisterre – earth’s end.
The history and myth that together create the Apostle, St James, whose supposed remains attract thousands of pilgrims is in fact extremely doubtful. It is unlikely that he ever visited Spain and reports of St. James the Moor slayer (Santiago Matomoro) appearing on a white horse in 844 AD were created by hired storytellers. Even the idea that his relics were finally transported to Iberia was probably just a fabrication of the Church. Some people may find this obvious deceit rather shocking, but it is a well-authenticated historical fact that many of the founding legends of medieval pilgrimage shrines were nothing more than tall tales conjured up by enterprising church administrators. Quite sensibly, they recognized that the number of pilgrims visiting and donating money to a shrine was proportional to the miraculous nature of the founding legend, and nothing has changed in this respect.
Travelling today on the St. James
Way is still a commercial affair. Pilgrims bring much needed revenue
and the route is sometimes diverted to take in villages and towns to
maximise these opportunities. The flip-side is that in return pilgrims
can enjoy facilities that make the difference between unacceptable
hardship and an accessible experience for people of any age and
fitness.
Pilgrims from
138 countries arrived in Santiago
in 2006 and
for the first time outside a Holy Year, the numbers passed the 100,000
mark -
an
increase of 6453 from 2005. Another interesting and encouraging fact is
that 250 pilgrims were over 75 years of age.
The St James Way is not a single route but can be broken down into five main and most well known starting points:
The French Way (Camino Francés), which has four separate starting points:
· Tours
· Vézelay
· Le Puy-en-Velay
· Arles
The Portuguese Way (Camino Portugués) is the second most important way, after the French. This begins at Porto in the north-west of Portugal, crossing the Lima and Minho rivers before entering Spain and then on to Padron and Santiago.
The Spanish Way (Aragonese) comes down from the Somport pass in the Pyrenees, makes its way along the River Arŕgon, then crosses the province of Navarre to Puenta la Reina where it joins the Camino Francés.
The Northern Way (Camino del Norte) runs from France at Irun and follows the northern coastline of Spain to Galicia where it heads inland towards Santiago joining the Camino Francés at Arzua. This route follows the old Roman road, the Via Agrippa, for some of its way and is part of the Ruta de la Costa.
The English Way (Camino Inglés) was traditionally for pilgrims who travelled to Spain by sea and disembarked in Ferrol or La Coruna. These pilgrims then made their way to Santiago overland.