Camino de Santiago (route descriptions)

The Northern Way (Spanish: Camino del Norte) (also known as the "Liébana Route") is an 817 km, five-week coastal route from Basque Country at Irún, near the French border, and follows the northern coastline of Spain to Galicia where it heads inland towards Santiago joining the Camino Francés at Arzúa.

This route was used by Christian pilgrims when Muslim domination had extended northwards and was making travel along the Camino francés dangerous.

In the Early Middle Ages, when the Northern (Coastal) Way was subject to the Vikings' skirmishes and Muslim presence and forays threatened pilgrims and trade routes in the borderlands, the Tunnel Way provided a safe road north of the frontier area, i.e. Gipuzkoa and Alava.

Yet previous to the latter, nowadays pilgrims usually take a detour south towards Haro and on to Santo Domingo de la Calzada on account of its better provision.

In Classical antiquity, the Lima was said to have properties of memory loss due to events in an ancient battle there between the Turduli and the Celts.

The rising importance of Póvoa de Varzim imposed this new direction,[9] In Póvoa de Varzim, the small Saint James Chapel (1582) in Praça da República holds a 15th century icon of Saint James found at the beach, the way follows west to the beach, heading to Esposende, Viana do Castelo and Caminha before reaching the Spanish border.

A contemporary version of the Coastal Way, pushed by German pilgrims, goes through Northern Portugal continuously along the sea, using beach walkways.

[10][11] The Camino winds its way inland until it reaches the Spanish border at the Minho river through Valença, heading for a 108 km walk to Santiago, passing through Tui.

A less-travelled Portuguese route, the Caminho Português Interior, begins at either the village of Farminhão or the adjacent city of Viseu, and continues along the Douro river valley via Lamego, Chaves, and Verín before connecting with the Via de la Plata at Ourense.

The English Way (Spanish: Camino Inglés) is traditionally for pilgrims who traveled to Spain by sea and disembarked in Ferrol or A Coruña.

Sometimes incorrectly known in English as the Silver Route or Way - "Plata" is a corruption of the Arabic word balath, meaning paved road.

The Via de La Plata (once a Roman causeway joining Italica and Asturica Augusta) starts in Seville from where it goes north to Zamora via Zafra, Cáceres and Salamanca.

It is much less frequented than the French Way or even the Northern Way - in 2013, of the 215,000 pilgrims being granted the compostela in Santiago, 4.2% traveled on the Via de la Plata, compared to 70.3% on the Camino Francés.

The Camino del Ebro starts in Catalonia at Sant Jaume d'Enveja near Deltebre, where Saint James is traditionally supposed to have left Spain on his way home to martyrdom in Palestine, and follows the River Ebro past Tortosa and Zaragoza, joining the Camino Francés at Logroño.

Though in the Codex everyone was called upon to join the pilgrimage, there were four main starting points in the Cathedral cities of Tours, Vézelay, Le Puy-en-Velay and Arles.

The Paris and Tours route (Via Turonensis [fr]) used to be the pilgrimage of choice for inhabitants of the Low Countries and those of northern and western France.

It is also called the Via Tolosana, a name that follows the Latin convention of the other French routes, because it passes through Toulouse, a notable pilgrimage destination in its own right.

The Way of St. James in the Netherlands is said to have started after St. Boniface brought Christendom to Friesland and the veneration of his relics near Dokkum gained popularity from 800 onwards.

Most St. James pilgrims through the centuries stopped to visit other famous reliquaries, and many of the most popular ones in France and northern Spain are listed in the Codex.

One section of the Way of St. James runs through the German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Hesse following the course of the historic trade route, the Via Regia from Görlitz via Bautzen, Kamenz, Großenhain, Wurzen, Leipzig, Merseburg, Naumburg (Saale), Erfurt, Gotha, Eisenach and Vacha to Fulda.

Providing the link to Franconia, the Saxon Way of St. James on the Franconian Road (Sächsische Jakobsweg an der Frankenstraße) runs from Königsbrück via Wilsdruff to Grumbach (old roadbed until the 15th century) and from Bautzen via Bischofswerda, Dresden, Kesselsdorf, Grumbach, through the Tharandt Forest to Freiberg and on to Chemnitz and Zwickau, in order to join the Via Imperii coming from Leipzig, before continuing via Plauen, Hof and Bayreuth to Nuremberg.

Between Wilsdruff and Grillenburg in the Tharandt Forest it runs in the same ancient route corridor as the Holy Way from Bohemia to Meißen, which is also being revived.

Beginning in the early Middle Ages (9-10th century), pilgrims coming from northern and eastern Europe crossed into Switzerland at the Lake of Constance and journeyed across the country to Geneva at the French border.

As they wandered through the countryside, the pilgrims passed by three traditional pilgrimage places, Einsiedeln Abbey, Flüeli Ranft and the Caves of Saint Beatus.

They also traveled through historic cities and villages, including St. Gall, Lucerne, Schwyz, Interlaken, Thun, Fribourg, and Lausanne.

St. James's Gate in Dublin was traditionally a principal starting point for Irish pilgrims to begin their journey on the Camino de Santiago (Way of St.

It is still possible for Irish pilgrims to get these traditional documents stamped at St James' Church, and many do, while on their way to Santiago de Compostella.

The main route in Slovakia begins in Košice, in front of St Elisabeth Cathedral, and ends in Bratislava, on SNP Square.

[22] In 1602, Grandmaster Alof de Wignacourt provided instructions of safe passage (a credencial) to Don Juan Benegas from St. Paul’s Grotto, Rabat, to visit holy places in Europe including Saint James In Galicia (as noted in a In a Liber Bullarum entry of the early 17th century).

[28] In Malta, the Camino Maltés meets another ancient pilgrim route, now known as the Universal Peace Walk (between Mdina and Żejtun).