Pre-Christian history of the route

Prior to its existence as a Catholic pilgrimage, the route is believed to also have had significance for the ancient pagan peoples of the Iberian peninsula, among them the Celts, and later the Romans who conquered Spain. The site of Santiago de Compostela itself may have been perhaps a Roman shrine.

To this day many of the pilgrims continue on from Santiago de Compostela to the Atlantic coast of Galicia to finish their pilgrimage at Spain's westernmost point Cape Finisterre (Galician: Fisterra). Although Cape Finisterre is not the westernmost point of mainland Europe (Cabo da Roca in Portugal is further west) the fact that the Romans called it Finisterrae (literally the end of the world, or Land's End in Latin) indicates that they viewed it as such.

Pagan influences can still be seen along the Way; indeed some of the modern-day pilgrims themselves are attracted more to the pagan legends associated with the Way rather than the Christian. One legends holds that walking the route was a pagan fertility ritual; this is one explanation for the scallop shell being a symbol of the pilgrimage.

Alternatively, the scallop resembles the Setting Sun, which was the focus of the pre-Christian Celtic rituals of the area. To wit, the pre-Christian roots of the Way of St. James was a Celtic death journey westwards towards the setting sun, terminating at the End of the World (Finisterra) on the "Coast of Death" (Costa de Morta) and the "Sea of Darkness" (ie, the Abyss of Death, the Mare Tenebrosum, Latin for the Atlantic Ocean, itself named after the Dying Civilization of Atlantis). The reference to St. James rescuing a "knight covered in scallops" is therefore a reference to St. James healing, or resurrecting, a dying (setting sun) knight. Note also that the knight obviously would have had to be "under the waters of death" for quite some time for shellfish to have grown over him. Similarly, the notion of the "Sea of Darkness" (Atlantic Ocean) disgorging St. James' body, so that his relics are (allegedly) buried at Santiago de Compostella on the coast, is itself a metaphor for "rising up out of Death", that is, resurrection.

The early-Christian pilgrimage

There are some who claim that the remains in Santiago de Compostela are not those of St. James, but of Priscillian. Priscillian was the 4th century Galician leader of an ascetic Christian sect, Priscillianism, and one of the first Christian heretics to be executed.

The earliest records of visits paid to the shrine dedicated to St. James at Santiago de Compostela date from the 8th century, in the time of the Kingdom of Asturias. The pilgrimage to the shrine became the most renowned medieval pilgrimage and it became customary for those who returned from Compostela to carry back with them a Galician scallop shell as proof of their journey; this practice gradually extended to other pilgrimages.[citation needed]

The earliest recorded pilgrims from beyond the Pyrenees visited the shrine in the middle of the 10th century, but it seems that it was not until a century later that large numbers of pilgrims from abroad were regularly journeying there. The first recorded pilgrims from England arrived between 1092 and 1105. However, by the early 12th century the pilgrimage was a highly organized affair. Four pilgrimage routes coming from France converged at Puente la Reina and from there a single route crossed northern Spain, linking Burgos, Carrión de los Condes, Sahagún, León, Astorga and Lugo to Compostela.

The route in the Medieval period

The daily needs of the large number of pilgrims on their way to, and from, Compostela was met by a series of hospitals and hospices along the way. These had royal protection and were a lucrative source of revenue. A new genre of Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture was designed to cope with huge devout crowds. There was also the now familiar paraphernalia of tourism, such as the selling of badges and souvenirs. There was even a remarkable guide-book published around 1140, the Codex Calixtinus.

The pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela was traversed particularly because of the protection and freedom provided by Kingdom of France, from whence the great majority of pilgrims always came. Enterprising French people (including Gascons and other peoples not under the French crown) settled in the pilgrimage towns, where their names crop up in the archives. The pilgrims were tended by people like Domingo de la Calzada who was later recognized as a saint himself.

Pilgrims would walk the Way of St. James for months to arrive finally at the great church in the main square to pay homage. So many pilgrims have laid their hands on the pillar just inside the doorway to rest their weary bones, that a groove has been worn in the stone.

The popular Spanish name for the Milky Way is El Camino de Santiago. The Milky Way was said to be formed from the dust raised by travelling pilgrims in a common medieval legend.

The modern day pilgrimage
Today tens of thousands[4] of Christian pilgrims and other travellers set out each year from their front doorstep, or popular starting points across Europe, to make their way to Santiago de Compostela. Most travel by foot, some by bicycle, and a few travel as some of their Medieval counterparts did on horseback or by donkey (e.g. the British author and humorist Tim Moore). In addition to people on a religious pilgrimage there are many travellers and hikers who walk the route for non-religious reasons such as for enjoyment, travel, sport or simply the challenge of weeks of walking in a foreign land.*

*Source: Wikipedia, Way of St. James, 11.01.2007