The Walking Pilgrim

Although most of the publicity given in recent years to the medieval pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela has concentrated on the main route across northern Spain, the Camino Francés, it should not be forgotten that the pilgrimage was a European phenomenon. A look at any map of Europe showing historical routes to Santiago shows routes converging more or less from every corner of the continent. The pilgrimage has become very popular in recent years, and thus many organisations in other European countries are studying the historical routes in their own area and actively planning or developing routes for modern walkers or cyclists based on them. This is an attempt to summarise these efforts, based on my own contacts with walking organisations in Europe, and information received from other Jacobean societies by the Confraternity of St James. As a walker, I am here mainly concerned with practicable walking routes, although some of them may also be usable by cyclists; cyclists can always fall back on using quiet back-lanes.

Anyone who has ever tried to follow a historical route on foot, whether it be a pilgrimage route, a Roman road or a trade route, soon comes across the same problems. These routes were generally the main roads of the past and have remained the main roads of the present, with such heavy traffic that they cannot really be recommended to holidaying motorists, let alone walkers or cyclists. Where, on the other hand, they are no longer the main road, they have often fallen completely into disuse, been ploughed up, planted with houses or factories or otherwise fatally obstructed, for example because a bridge or ferry no longer exists. Some historical sections do remain extant, and where they have, they are often impressive - who can fail to be impressed by the descent into Conques on the GR65 or the bridge at Puente la Reiña, for example - but are rarely more than a small part of the total route. Those seeking to create a modern walking route based on a historical one therefore have a choice: authentic but unattractive, or attractive but inauthentic. Most modern routes of this sort are thus a compromise of some sort and, with Compostelan routes, this tends to mean that the modern walking route links together the main shrines etc on a route by means of attractive footpaths, using the ancient line where this is still an attractive option, but not sticking slavishly to it. This may in turn mean that the waymarked route is considerably longer than the historic line as it may take the attractive detour through the forest or up the hill to the viewpoint, something that the medieval pilgrim would never have done. In these cases the modern pilgrim may prefer to cut the corners on the waymarked route where a viable alternative exists.

On none of these routes should you expect the sort of infrastructure in the form of refugios and other facilities that is available on the Camino Frances. France has its gîtes d'étape and Germany and the Low Countries have youth hostels, both of which provide low-cost accommodation, generally with the ability to cook your own food, but these are nowhere near as plentiful as refugios on the Camino. Small hotels in rural France, Germany and Wallonia tend to be reasonably priced, but I have not found this to be the case in Flanders, and it is certainly not true of Switzerland. Though some of the routes listed may have inspired local churches or town halls to introduce a stamp for a pilgrim passport, this cannot be relied on. It remains the case that outside the GR65/Camino, the walking pilgrim is a rare bird.

This list is almost certainly not complete, but I hope it can be used as a basis for further updates in due course. If you know of any other routes, or of any errors, please let me know.

Books listed may be available through normal bookbuying channels and bookshops. Otherwise write to the organisation listed for price including postage; for non-profitmaking organisations, enclose international reply coupon (available from main post offices). Prices given are the local price, to which postage etc must be added.

Finally, if you do walk a route, please also send in some feedback which can be passed on to future pilgrims.