On arrival at the Cathedral in Santiago, pilgrims take their credential to the nearby Pilgrim Office where a Compostela will be given, to certify the completion of your pilgrimage. Your passport can be obtained in bars, hotels, town halls, museums churches, police stations and all refugios along the way. The credential must be stamped daily to gain access to pilgrim hostels. The credential can also be obtained at pilgrim offices and churches in the main towns along the Camino de Santiago. It is a small document that you can get before arriving at the Camino de Santiago by contacting your local Confraternity of St James. While walking the Camino de Santiago, pilgrims carry a credential, known as the Pilgrim Passport. With a variety of accommodation on offer, ranging from hostels to boutique hotels, a holiday on the Camino de Santiago can be tailor-made to personal preferences and budget. Many others walk the Camino for an excellent break and holiday, and to achieve something special. The Camino is not limited to exclusively religious with many people walking the Camino for spiritual reasons. All of the routes to Santiago pass by holy shrines, magnificent Cathedrals, historic monasteries and rural churches which give a real sense of the traditional reasons for travelling to Santiago. Today, the Camino is still very popular with traditional Roman Catholic pilgrims who travel to Santiago as a demonstration of their faith. My decision to walk the Camino was to slow down and walk into a new pace of life, more aware of my surroundings and more in touch with the environment.
“I have worked for over 30 years in the corporate environment – fast paced, long hours, hard work. This popularity has continued into the 21st Century with almost 350,000 pilgrims reaching the Cathedral of Santiago in 2019, and possibly more in 2022 as the holy year of 2021 is extended. From the rebirth of the Camino in the late 1980s, there has been a year on year increase in the number of recorded pilgrims making the journey to Santiago de Compostela. It was only in the 1980s that the process to widespread rediscovery of the Camino de Santiago began thanks to the parish priest and academic Don Elías Valiña Sanpedro, who dedicated the last 10 years of his life to way marking the Camino Francés.Īs well as Don Sanpedro, pilgrim associations and local governments have also contributed to the rebirth of the Camino Francés which has led to the rediscovery of various routes through France, Portugal and Spain. For most of the 20th Century the Camino de Santiago remained restricted to the Iberian Peninsula due to the First and Second World Wars, as well as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Its popularity decreased further with European wars and revolutions in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, which restricted travel and cross-cultural integration. Its popularity only began to decrease during the 16th Century with the Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe. Throughout the Middle Ages the Camino de Santiago remained as popular as pilgrimages to Jerusalem or Rome. This guidebook detailed the routes and infrastructure leading to the Santiago de Compostela and is widely interpreted as the first tourist guidebook. In 1140 the Codex Calixtinus, the first guidebook of the Camino de Santiago, was published. In 997 the first shrine of St James was destroyed by the Moorish army of Al-Mansur but by the 12th century the Cathedral of Santiago had been rebuilt and was attracting pilgrims from all over Europe. Sculpture of St James the Apostle, at the Cathedral of Santiago The discovery of his remains in the 9th Century led to the creation of a religious shrine which marks the beginning of Santiago de Compostela and the Camino de Santiago. His followers are said to have transported his remains to Northern Galicia where they lay undiscovered until 813.
It is believed that St James preached the Gospel in present day Galicia and on return to Jerusalem he was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa in 44AD. The Camino de Santiago has existed for over 1000 years, and it dates back to the 9th Century (the time of King Alfonso II of Asturias) when the remains of St James the Apostle were first discovered in Northern Spain. This is the first (serialised) part of our guide to the Camino de Santiago answers the key questions to acquaint you with the Camino: What is the Camino? And, should you walk the Camino? Camino History
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