The Way of St. James, the Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and the first and best way to travel to European culture
To commemorate St. James, this road was created since the 9th century, and it shows us the permanent history and culture of Europe and grants us peace and harmony
The Way of St. James
The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is one of the living historical phenomena that best defines the universal values of Western culture. The Way of St. James was born in the 9th century, after the discovery of the tomb of the apostle St. James the Elder (around 830), one of the direct disciples of Jesus Christ, diffuser of his doctrine in the western end of Spain, according to a tradition that starts from a text known as the Breviary of the Apostles (6th century).
The other great Jacobean tradition is the Translatio: the journey that the body of Santiago makes from Jerusalem to Compostela, after the death of the apostle, departing on a ship from the port of Jaffa, to the port of Iria Flavia (Padrón). In this way, the relics of St. James the Elder are found in the land where he preached the word of Christ, specifically in the locus Sancti Iacobi (the current Compostela).
The exercise of hospitality is the cornerstone of the pilgrimage to Santiago. Along the Jacobean routes, a reception and help infrastructure was created for centuries, made up of hospitals founded by kings and nobles, hospitals of monasteries, military orders, cathedral chapters, even privately founded hospitals or collective, related to a pious person or to entire neighborhoods. At present, hospitality continues to be a reference on the Way of St. James, with pilgrim hostels that depend on associations of friends of the Camino, town halls, parishes or autonomous communities, as is the case of Galicia and its network of hostels.
The Council of Europe in 1987 declared the Way of St. James as the first European cultural itinerary; In 1993, UNESCO declared the French Way in Spain a World Heritage Site, increasing this declaration in 1998, with the addition of the historical sites of France linked to the Roads of Santiago, described in Book V of the Codex Calixtinus; and in 2015 UNESCO inscribed the Roads of Santiago in northern Spain on the Way of St. James World Heritage List. This high institutional consideration corresponds to the historical and cultural importance of the route. With the creativity generated throughout it, with the spirituality that gave it life, with the feeling of union and belonging that it drives, and with the emotion that the Jacobean pilgrimage continues to arouse in the 21st century.
The regional government of Galicia has been working for almost thirty years to promote the pilgrimage to Compostela, taking care of the paths, strengthening the public network of pilgrim hostels, promoting historical-cultural research and international promotion.
homepage