Manifesto Villafranca del Bierzo - Part 3

MANIFESTO -Section 3:  Tourism and Pilgrimage

The explosion of the leisure culture on the Camino de Santiago has multiplied the problems already present on the principal routes: the overbuilding, vulgarity, and loss of the unique spirit and values historically associated with the Jacobean Way. Public administrations are to blame for their disingenuous campaigns designed to sell the camino as a “tourism product.”

1.        “The explosion of the leisure culture on the Camino de Santiago..”

What does ‘leisure culture’ mean? 

Even a Google search didn’t come up with a definition of those two words used together. 

Do they mean tourists? 
Or, tourist-pilgrims?
Surely those people who visit the places on the Camino as Religious or Cultural tourists (as pilgrims do to Fatima, Lourdes, Rome or the Holy Land) can’t really be the cause of “vulgarity and the loss of the unique spirit and values historically associated with the Jacobean Way.”
(Photos from Wikipedia)

Do they mean pilgrims or people who walk the Camino but don’t stay in albergues or carry backpacks? 
That is what I have done for the past 4 years and there is nothing leisurely about walking a Camino!  Even if you stay in hotels and have your luggage transported between towns you still have to walk the same rocky paths, in the wind, sun or rain and eat pilgrim food like all the other people on the trail.  You risk the same blisters, tendonitis, shin-splints and muscle cramps.

Do they mean people who take groups of pilgrims on the Camino?  If you've never walked in those shoes you have no idea how challenging that can be!  There have always been 'tour groups' of pilgrims from the first Confraternities to the Knights of Santiago who appointed dozens of people from other countries as official pilgrims guides.  (Like Saint Bona of Pisa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bona_of_Pisa )

As far as the Roman Catholic Church is concerned anyone who arrives at the tomb of St James in reverence and prayer is a pilgrim.  The way they get there is irrelevant. The cathedral recorded 12 million pilgrims in 2010.  This is the total number of people who entererd the cathedral during the year for religious reasons. The cathedral uses three  traditional methods for counting:

• The number of those who go through the Holy Door on the east side of the Cathedral
• The number of devotional cards issued to anyone who puts a donation in the alms box receives a card.
• The number of donated communions during the Holy Mass in the Cathedral.

Walking/cycling pilgrims made up only 2% of pilgrims in 2010 according to the numbers who received a Compostela.  I wonder how many of those were considered ’pilgrims‘ using the above criteria?

2.   “ .... and loss of the unique spirit and values historically associated with the Jacobean Way”

 Really?  I really have a problem with this statement! 

The Jacobean Way was never sacrosanct.  It attracted much more than just pious, holy and saintly pilgrims.  Anyone who has read the Liber Sancti Jacobi or any other medieval pilgrim stories will be all too familiar with tales of false pilgrims, thieves, bandits, murderers, vagabonds, heretics, criminal penitents and the vain!  The medieval Jacobean Way and medieval pilgrims are not shining examples for 21^st century pilgrims.

“What was even worse was the deplorable state of affairs encountered on the pilgrim routes themselves. Pilgrims by choice or by constraint met up with swarms of unemployed or seasonally employed vagabonds and a veritable horde of beggars. It became ever more difficult to distinguish between the motives of pilgrims on the road.
In 1523 the city council of Bern, which lay on the pilgrim route from Einsiedeln to France decided, to direct away all beggars, be they from the country, returning from the wars or pilgrims on the road to St. James, pedlars, heathens... and such like and not to house them or give them shelter.
Local by-laws throughout Europe, eg in Douai, in Compostela itself (1503) or in Tyrol province in 1532 reflected the same tendency.”

Imagine that, pilgrims not being offered shelter, even in Compostela!

What about the service providers along the Way?

I doubt our private albergue owners are anything as bad as the swindling inn keepers, toll road cheats, murderous tavern owners, false priests, prostitutes, horny young ladies who provided the basis for a legend about chickens miraculously come back to life.  Touts that met pilgrims on the road selling trinkets and souvenirs or trying to con the pilgrims into paying for rooms in already overcrowded inns. And the beggars who walked the Camino on behalf of the penitential pilgrims. 

“Such ‘peregrinatio poenaliter causa’ did as little to enhance the dignity of pilgrims as did the ‘peregrinatio delegata’ which led to beggars  making a living out of accomplishing pilgrimages of penitence in others' stead. (Haebler).

And it wasn't just the poor or mendicant pilgrims who didn't behave.  Robert Plotz describes some of the accounts of the many ‘noble pilgrims’ - those on horseback with retinues:

 The Saxon Duke Henry, later called Henry the Devout, was certainly not attending to his religious needs on his journey to Santiago, for two of his companions reported that, "gourmandising was our best prayer and indulgence on such a journey."  

And how are we to judge or condemn the pilgrim who artlessly tells us how to say "pretty maid, come sleep with me" in the Basque language (A von Harff).

Another new type of pilgrim was the prosperous patricians ... for whom a pilgrimage to Compostela took its place in a journey of information and instruction, a journey on which it was not uncommon to look after business interests too, as did Nicolas Rummel of Nuremberg in 1408/09.”

The ‘Camino’ today (and the person who walks it) is probably more pure, more honest, and the path more sanctified than it has ever been.  There are very few bandits, criminals or murderers lying in wait for unsuspecting pilgrims.  Some restaurants or hotels might overcharge but you don't ever feel that your life is in danger when you stay there!

The great majority of today’s pilgrims – and tourogrinos – are not prompted by a multitude of sins to walk to Santiago. What’s more, they don’t walk in expectation of rewards as did their medieval counterparts.  Many of us have to take at least 4 flights, over 24 hours, at great expense, just to get to Spain and start walking.  And then we do it all over again to get back home.  Surely this makes us  even more admirable - all that effort and suffering for no reward! 

Many people today say that ‘the journey is what is important’ not the destination.  For the medieval pilgrim, the journey was a long and dangerous slog (or a long holiday away from the drudgery of home!) but the thought of not reaching the destination and the expected rewards that awaited them, was unthinkable. 

3.   Public administrations are to blame for their disingenuous campaigns designed to sell the camino as a “tourism product.”

Are they? The first ‘European Cultural Route’ has always been marketed as a tourism product.  Right from the outset the Council of Europe was quite clear that their work was not aimed only at pilgrims but at tourism too.

At the opening of the 1988 Bamberg Congress on the Santiago de Compostela Cultural Route, the address read out for the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mr Marcelino Oreja, made it clear that this route was not chosen just to bring pilgrims back, but for cultural purposes too.  

 “The underlying purpose of the process initiated by the Council of Europe: to bring out the historical and cultural contribution made by this pilgrimage movement to the forging of the European cultural identity.  The set of principles and values which represent a heritage common to European nations whatever their geographical location, whether or not these routes pass through them.  For this reason, our work is aimed not only at the pilgrims, who are guided by spiritual motives, but also at those expressing cultural practices peculiar to our own age and society.

As we have pointed out on several occasions, and I should like to do so once again today, the purpose of our work is not merely to revive the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim routes for nostalgic, erudite or archaeological reasons, but also to project them into the future.”
[I stressed words in bold]

Loci Iacobi, a European Union project, aims to develop the pilgrims’ trails of Saint James as a European tourism product and to consolidate it as the first European Cultural Itinerary through the creation and promotion of new tourism contents of high add-value for tourists (and other tourism stakeholders) and through the introduction of the new technologies of information and communication in their consumption"    http://www.saintjamesway.eu//chemins-de-compostelle/loci-iacobi-dr37.html

The pilgrimage road to Santiago has always brought riches and power, especially to Compostela.

"Indeed, for many centuries, it would seem that the chief purpose of St. James was to draw the sin-smitten and disease-afflicted people of Christendom to this distant and secluded part of the world, solely for their spiritual or physical good. Other benefits followed. The constant and increasing flow of pilgrims enriched Compostella, added power and dignity to its rulers, and helped Spain to gain that position in Europe which for no mean length of time made her mighty among the nations."
Rev James Stone - The Cult of Santiago 1927

Is marketing the Camino as a tourism project such a bad thing?   

This is like the tail wagging the dog! 
 
I believe that marketing the Santiago de Compostela route to cultural and religious tourists came first, with walking pilgrims following afterwards.  (Not the other way around)

Remember that for almost 400 years the pilgrimage routes were forgotten, relics of the past. 

Less than 150 years ago, in the Holy Year of 1867, just 40 pilgrims turned up to celebrate the saint's feast day mass on the 25^th July.

The late Don Jaime of the Pilgrims Office found an old record book kept by his predecessor which showed that 37 pilgrims received the Compostela in 1967. 

 “In the 1970’s there survived only a remote memory of the Jacobean pilgrimage” wrote Don Elias Valiña Sampedro (father of the modern Camino).  But, he also predicted the invasion!

One day in 1982, with fears of terrorism rife, the sight of yellow arrows painted on trees along a Pyrenean road aroused the suspicion of the Guardia Civil. Following the trail, they came upon a battered white van. A small, smiling man got out. When prompted, he opened the van's back doors to reveal tins of bright yellow paint and a wet paintbrush.
"Identification!" barked the Guardia.
"I'm Don Elías Valiña Sampedro, parish priest of O Cebreiro in Galicia."
"And what are you doing with all this?"
"Preparing a great invasion…"

(Johnnie Walker’s blog)

Santiago de Compostela tourism: 
In a previous post I mentioned the road map of the five road routes that lead tourists and tourist-pilgrims, by road, to Santiago which were published for the 1954 Holy Year.  A concertina style credential was issued, with blank squares so that travelers could obtain a stamp at the places they stopped at along the road and earn a diploma when they arrived in Santiago.  This was clearly aimed at people travelling by motor vehicle and not the foot pilgrims (if there were any.)

In 1971 a book was published by the Ministerio de Informacion y Turismo entitled "Santiago en Espana, Europa y America" (still available on Amazon and ebay.es) 

Robert Plotz writes:

“It describes itself as ‘como una afirmacion del ser historico de Espana’ (as an affirmation of the historical essence of Spain) and also as an invitation ‘a los peregrinos de nuestra epoca que son los turistas ... porque el turismo es una forma moderna de peregrinar’ (to tourists, who are the pilgrims of our age ... because tourism is a modern form of pilgrimage).

Despite its absurdity, the questionable attempt to unite the pilgrim tradition and modern mass tourism, it brought Compostela again to mind as a holy place. 

In the Ano Santo 1965, two million visitors were said to have come and in 1982 the official figure was around six million. These numbers certainly included many pilgrims.  Compostela did not merely gain tourists but pilgrims, who came in ever greater numbers and increasingly in the spirit of pilgrims in the medieval meaning of the term.”  

(Does'nt this tell us that the tourists came first and then the pilgrims followed?)

The road itself (which was arbitrarily decided upon 1984-1987) is not a holy or sacred path. As a World Heritage site it must be preserved but why should it be protected from tourists?  There are numerous monuments, churches, bridges, cathedrals, hospitals along the way, many of them cultural and religious attractions which were awarded World Heritage status years before the 'Camino'.   Most of them charge tourists (and pilgrims) entrance fees.  They are all vigorously promoted to attract tourists – and why not. 

How do they propose to stop or monitor websites like this one?

http://www.spain.info/en/reportajes/turismo_religioso_en_espana.html

Spain has so much to offer when it comes to "religious tourism". A few suggestions: follow the Way of Saint James on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela; live the intense Easter Week celebrations; take part in the El Rocío pilgrimage; visit important monasteries and cathedrals, or achieve the "jubilee" (a kind of blessing granted for carrying out certain rites in Santiago).   All while you discover some of Spain's most relevant monuments.  The holy city of Santiago. Santiago de Compostela, in northwestern Spain, is the main destination for religious tourism in Spain and marks the end of the Way of Saint James. Visiting its old town, which has the UNESCO World Heritage designation, and the route of the Way of Saint James, are unique experiences.

The First International Congress on Tourism and Pilgrimages took place in Santiago de Compostela, on 17-20 September 2014.  

 

The aims were to highlight the positive contributions of pilgrimages and spiritual routes to sustainable and responsible tourism, as well as the contribution of tourism to cultural understanding and the preservation of natural and cultural heritage related to ancient trails and sacred places.  (Full program link at the end of the post).

(Note especially, the reference to ‘spiritual routes’.  Spiritual Tourism is the new big thing in tourism.)  

 “The Secretary of State for Tourism of Spain, Isabel Borrego, recalled that “the city of Santiago de Compostela is a reference for religious tourism in Spain. To visit its historic centre, a UNESCO Heritage Site, and walk the Santiago path are unique experiences. Spain has much to offer in terms of religious tourism”: Santiago, intense pilgrimages and religious celebrations, important monasteries and cathedrals and many religious festivities of great interest.”

At the end of the Congress the “Declaration of Santiago de Compostela on Tourism and Pilgrimages” was read by Marina Diotallevi, Programme Manager, Ethics and Social Responsibility Programme, UNWTO  (Link at the end of this post)

The 5^th (and last) proposal was about developing spiritual tourism in a sustainable manner:

“To encourage new initiatives and the creation of international networks that foster the exchange of experiences at the level of research, training of tourism professionals, promotion, marketing and the management of pilgrimage routes and sites, that engage faith groups and local communities as equal partners in developing spiritual tourism in a sustainable manner.”

(".... faith groups and local communities?"   Why were the local guardians of the Camino - AMIGIOS and FICS - not represented at this Congress?)

MANIFESTO:  We agree and propose:

1. Reorient institutional touristic campaigns to build respect for traditional pilgrimage values.

This should also include non-institutional campaigns like the travel and tourist agencies.   

2. Urge associations, confraternities and camino-related organizations to better explain camino values and behavior to new pilgrims.

At our workshops we give all future pilgrims a handout which includes a list of pilgrim and albergue etiquette.  In my planning guide ‘Your Camino’ I included four pages on do’s and don’ts. 

3. Initiate rigorous inspection of all services directed at pilgrims.

This is a bit vague – what does it mean, which services – and who will the inspectors be?

4.  Support and organize programs to open and secure the churches, hermitages and monuments along the pilgrim paths.

Totally agree but hardly possible for churches if you have a circuit priest who is only in certain villages on certain days.  I don’t recall ever seeing a hermitage on any of the Camino routes I’ve walked.  (Maybe I just didn’t recognize the dwellings as such!)

By monuments, do they mean cathedrals, hospices, churches etc?

Perhaps by marketing the pilgrimage as a cultural, spiritual and religious destination for tourists and pilgrims, the Camino might one day change the world!

 

Ben Bowler - Founder World Weavers, Monk for a Month, Interfaith Express & Blood Foundation recently published this article on ‘Spiritual Tourism’.

“Long-time travel industry observer and journalist Mr. Imtiaz Muqbil gave an interesting overview of a tourism industry in transition - moving from what he called the three "S"s of the old tourism - Sun, Sand and Sex towards what he sees as the emerging three "S"s in the new tourism being Serenity, Sustainability and Spirituality.

If this evolution of values in tourism gains traction and is ongoing then there are some serious implications. Considering that tourism is the largest service industry on the planet employing 260 million people, responsible for 9% or the worlds GDP and now having passed the 1 billion mark in arrivals each year, it is not hard to see that even small movements of the needle measuring travelers’ motivations and values can have a big impact on our world. 

In an age of soulless materialism and endless consumption, taking time out to explore the depths of the world's wisdom traditions is probably a good idea. Such "spiritual vacations" may well be a catalyst that brings greater enlightenment to the individual, increased understanding between different cultures and may even help to foster an emerging spiritual renaissance.”

 

 

 

Full Program:  http://www.pilgrimage2014.com/programa/?lang=en  

For a biography of the speakers:  

https://www.academia.edu/6325011/INTERNATIONAL_CONFERENCE_ON_SPIRITUAL_TOURISM_FOR_SUSTAINABLE_DEVELOPMENT_Biographies_and_Position_Statements_of_the_Conference_Speakers

Declaration:

http://dtxtq4w60xqpw.cloudfront.net/sites/all/files/pdf/santiago_de_compostela_declaration_on_tourism_and_pilgrimages._en.pdf

 

 

  

 

The Manifesto Villafranca del Bierzo - Part 2

MANIFESTO - SECTION 2:

DEFENSE OF CAMINO HERITAGE, DEFINING AND WAY-MARKING CAMINO TRAILS

This is a difficult one for me.  I agree and support all of the proposals under this section. 

But, I have doubts about the validity of the so-called ‘ONE ROUTE’ called the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, which was created by the Council of Europe in 1984 – 1987 and culminated in the “ONE ROUTE” being added to the World Heritage list in 1993 . 

For a more educated opinion than mine, click here for an informed article about the validity of the Council of Europe and World Heritage declarations on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route - http://pilgrim.peterrobins.co.uk/santiago/heritage.html  

I must add a disclaimer before I even start on this post!

Disclaimer: 

• I LOVE THE CAMINO. 
• I HAVE WALKED TO SANTIAGO 9 TIMES IN 14 YEARS.
• I HAVE HELD UMPTEEN PRACTICAL WORKSHOPS TO HELP PEOPLE PLANNING TO WALK THE CAMINO ROUTES. 
• I HAVE WRITTEN 3 BOOKS ON THE PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE CAMINO.
• I FORMED A COMPANY IN 2010 TO TAKE SMALL GROUPS OF LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE ON THE CAMINO. 
• I ADMIRE AND SUPPORT ANY AND ALL WORK DONE TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT THE CAMINO.
• WHETHER I AM OF THE OPINION THAT ANY OF THE TRAILS IN EUROPE IDENTIFIED FOR WORLD HERITAGE STATUS ARE ‘AUTHENTIC’ OR NOT, I ACCEPT THAT THE ‘CAMINO’ AS KNOW IT IS THE ONLY ‘CAMINO’ WE’VE GOT, AND AS A WORLD HERITAGE SITE IT MUST BE PROTECTED AND PRESERVED.  

Now - back to the Manifesto.

DEFINING THE CAMINO TRAILS, DEFENSE OF CAMINO HERITAGE

 

Defining the Camino trails and defence of the Camino Heritage can be discussed as one heading – in that order.

Many academics have argued that the only routes which can be positively identified as being ‘pilgrimage routes’ to the tomb of Saint James are those in Galicia.  The pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint James was a Galician invention.  It spread to the rest of Spain, then to all of Europe and now it is a global phenomenon.  The only starting place we can be sure of is Coruna and because that route is only 75km pilgrims who walk from there do not qualify for a Compostela.

 

Like a myriad of rivulets and streams flowing into a great lake, the further away from the area surrounding the city of Santiago de Compostela, the more problematic it becomes to identify the many different paths taken by medieval pilgrims, let alone trying to establish ‘one route’ as the only pilgrims ‘Way’. 

(The Camino de Santiago cannot be positively identified in the same way as other World Heritage sites, such as, for instance, the Great Wall of China.)

“While the course of the different routes is generally known, very little of them survive in anything approaching their original form.”  (Council of Europe) 

Getting back to FICS and AMIGOS who are the guardians of the Camino.

It must be really frustrating for them when the same findings and proposals are reached after almost every congress, conference, symposium or meeting of the different organizations dealing with the Camino since 1999.  This is not the first time there has been a Manifesto calling for UNESCO to list the Camino de Santiago on the ‘World Heritage in Danger list’. 

Ten years ago the YESA NO campaign mobilised thousands of supporters at rallies to protest against the enlargement of the Yesa dam in Aragon.  http://www.yesano.com/camino_noticias.htm

They applied to have that part of the Camino added to the World Heritage in Danger list. 

At first UNESCO’s response was that the section of the Camino in danger was not the same as that which was covered in the 1993 World Heritage listing.  In the end, UNESCO reported that “a compromise solution put forward for the Yesa Dam was found and agreed upon by ICOMOS after they were assured that part of the original Route, which would be submerged by the heightening of the Dam, would be preserved in a similar way to the section now beneath the concrete runway of the airport of Santiago de Compostela, which has already been accepted as part of the World Heritage property.”

Four years ago, in December 2010, representatives of more than eighty Jacobean and other organizations from various European and South American countries signed a document in Santiago de Compostela, accusing the government of not defending the Camino Frances from multiple threats and attacks, such as the works of the circle of Las Cañas in Logrono, a suburb in Cizur Menor (Pamplona) the destruction of the Hospital de las Tiendas, among many others.  A “Manifesto de Compostela” which has was promoted by the Galician Association of Friends of the Camiño de Santiago, asked UNESCO to include the path in the list of World Heritage in Danger.

“El Manifiesto de Compostela, firmado por asociaciones jacobeas, culturales y patrimoniales de varios países, solicita a la UNESCO que el Camino Francés entre a formar parte de la lista de Patrimonio Mundial en Peligro debido a los “continuos atentados” que sufre.”

A:  DEFINING THE CAMINO TRAILS

This was the problem facing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 1984. They implemented a program of co-operation and exchanges to promote public awareness in order to identify the routes and mark them with a common emblem and co-ordinate the various cultural and tourist activities and the restoration of monuments.

 Peter Robins - writing on the problems with identifying the pilgrimage paths in Spain.

·         The route is largely based on Roman roads; many of the settlements, such as Astorga and León, and much of the infrastructure, such as bridges and actual roadway, predate the pilgrimage, and would have been there whether the pilgrimage had existed or not

·         similarly, because there was an existing major road, many of the later settlements and infrastructure such as travellers' accommodation would have grown up along it too, again whether the pilgrim road to Santiago had existed or not; this is, after all, what happened to Roman roads in other countries, such as Britain

·         likewise, many villages and towns not on "the Route" have monuments that are just as impressive if not more so as some of those on the route

·         this is also the case for buildings on others of "the different pilgrimage routes"; how do they differ from those on "the Route"?

·         the argument is made that the pilgrimage route provided the channel for Romanesque architecture to spread to Spain, yet the earliest Romanesque churches are in Catalonia and have nothing to do with Santiago; conversely, several of the major monuments of the Camino Francés, such as León and Burgos cathedrals, are post-Romanesque, and others are of a distinctly Spanish baroque style.

·         in addition, any route/road changes over time; this means it is not a fixed 'heritage site'.

http://pilgrim.peterrobins.co.uk/santiago/heritage.html 

The major basis for the routes in Frances and Spain was the ‘Liber Sancti Jacobi “ which is now thought to have been written either for Duke William, Count of Poitiers, or King Alfonso, and not as a general guide describing any specific pilgrimage roads leading to Spain. 

www.saint-jacques.info/anglais/guide.htm  

Too many academic papers have been written on the so called Codex Calixtinus to mention here but suffice it to say that there is overwhelming evidence that the book does not describe four routes in France, and that there were no dedicated Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage routes in many other countries of Europe either.  Researchers agree that there were roads, paths and tracks followed by travellers, traders and armies etc that were also used by pilgrims to shrines all over Europe as well as to Santiago de Compostela.   

“The terms pilgrim "roads" or "routes” were invented by Romance philologists and art historians, whose contested or amended theories should not dominate our conceptions nowadays. In a wider historical context, the expression "pilgrim road" may denote the routes preferred by pilgrims. Again, the further one gets away from Spain and France, the vaguer the notion of specific routes for Santiago pilgrims becomes.”  Klaus Berbers - Federal Republic of Germany – 1988 Bamberg Congress. 

 “Of course, in this region, there is a great deal of evidence of the cult of Saint James, whether in the form of churches or altars, statues, crosses, place names or roads. However, these are evidence of the cult of Saint James in general rather than evidence of the pilgrimage routes.  The term Santiago pilgrim route properly applies only to those mediaeval or modern routes closely associated in function with the cult of Saint James or the Santiago pilgrimage. In the upper Rhineland, at least, such routes do not exist.  That is why we remain sceptical about the Council of Europe project entitled ‘Santiago de Compostela European cultural route’. It is unreasonable to interpret any evidence of the cult of Saint James as proof of the existence of a pilgrimage route.” H.P. Schneider – Switzerland – 1988 Bamberg Congress 

Throughout the discussions at the 1988 Bamberg Congress about identifying a ‘Santiago de Compostela European Cultural Route’ many representatives of the different countries raised doubts about the existence of such routes in Europe. 

What about the confraternities, symbols of Saint James and churches named for him? 

“There were 12 confraternities of Saint James in the upper Rhineland.  According to the available information, the confraternities of Saint James  ….  were associations organised for the purpose of prayer for the souls of the dead. In short, they were not confraternities of Santiago pilgrims for Santiago pilgrims. We must therefore conclude that - at least as far as the upper Rhineland is concerned - the confraternities of Saint James were of no importance to the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.”   

“The fact that a hospital or hospice was dedicated to a particular saint does not tell us anything about its function, which can only be elucidated by the written sources for each particular case. The hospices, including those dedicated to Saint James, took in not only Santiago pilgrims but all other pilgrims and all poor travellers.”  

 “Thanks to the Guide, [Liber Sancti Jacobi] the idea became widespread that there were four routes to go to Compostela.  There is no evidence that any of the four routes or their extensions ever saw more pilgrim traffic than any others…. history has so far found no evidence of large departures for Compostela from these towns [Tours, Le Puy, and Vezelay, Arles].  The currently used Le Puy route, the GR65, is an invention of the 1970s that the creators admitted was not based on historical evidence - largely because there is no historical evidence.” Peter Robbins

 

“The current evolution of the European Institute of Cultural Routes into a technical tourist agency with everything aimed at the profit of the Greater Region centred on Luxembourg demonstrates this. Without the slightest attempt at authenticity, new maps have been produced. They trace back arbitrarily four routes in France into eight or nine European routes. The illusory nature of the maps drawn for Aquitaine by Alexandre Nicolaî and for France by Elie Lambert is even more so for Europe.   The Council of Europe recognises the symbolic character of these routes by making them intangible "Cultural Routes" whilst at the same time encouraging publication of guides and maps and actions on the ground of no serious historical validity. Those historians who at the time argued for a serious methodology in the research into routes were not listened to.” Fondation David Parou – France 

B:  MANIFESTO - DEFENSE OF CAMINO HERITAGE 

The Santiago de Compostela Declaration - 1987 

·         to identify the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim routes throughout Europe

·         to signpost the routes with a common emblem; and

·         to launch an extensive programmof European co-operation through the restoration and rehabilitation of the architectural and natural heritage lying in the vicinity of the routes and the organisation of cultural activities and exchanges between the towns and regions situated along them.  

“Preserving the outstanding universal value granted to the Route of Santiago implies the comprehensive protection of all the sites’ values –both tangible and intangible. The essence of cultural routes lies on the “interrelationship” of all their elements, which should not be considered separately. Preserving the values protected following Operational Guidelines criteria implies protecting the “communication system” represented by the Route of Santiago.”  WHC 1933 [I changed the words to bold] 

Buffer zones:  “The Route of Santiago WHC Nomination Documentation (UNESCO, 1993) indicates that the historical complex protected includes 30 meters to each side of the route and all the medieval areas of cities and towns crossed by it. Suarez-Inclan (2000) underlines that this protection was established with a temporal character and that final delimitation should be determined by planning instruments. Buffer zone should be expressly indicated on a revised version of the UNESCO dossier of the Route of Santiago.” 

C:  MANIFESTO - ON THE MATTER OF HISTORIC LEGAL DESIGNATION 

It is essential we ensure the Jacobean Itineraries with the most historical claims as pilgrimage ways receive proper legal designations and protection.  

As most academics and researchers have said, how does one decide which itinerary has the strongest historical claim to being a Santiago de Compostela route?  Neither the presence of a church or hospice dedicated to Santiago, nor a scallop shell on a bridge, nor a confraternity of Saint James in the area proves that it was on a traditional pilgrimage route or that it was the only route to Santiago. 

When the COE identified the present route of the Camino de Santiago, many villages claiming a Santiago pilgrimage connection were bypassed.  Those on the route have benefitted from what has been described as ‘arbitrary choices made without historical foundations” whilst others were excluded.   

This proposal can only be fair if the recognition of Jacobean itineraries is extended to all of those with claims to a historical Santiago pilgrimage connection, such as the Invierno Route (Winter Route) and the claim for a new route that will bypass Miraz and Arzua. 

D:  MANIFESTO: On the matter of Way-marking 

Although the yellow arrow is the icon of the Jacobean pilgrimage in all the world, a chaos of markings and signs litter the pathways on the Way of St. James.

We propose:  

1.      Unifying the way-marking of the Camino de Santiago throughout Europe based on the European Council guidelines. Wherever possible the yellow arrow will be used.  

Item 2 of the Santiago de Compostela Declaration is: 

 2.  establish a system of signposting for the principal points on the itinerary, using the emblem suggested by the Council of Europe 

Clearly the UNESCO emblem is only meant to be used on principle points and not on all the different routes through Europe to Santiago but the shell symbol and the yellow and blue colours were the most recognizable Jacobean symbols on all of the Santiago routes I've walked on in Spain, France, Switzerland and even Italy.

The yellow arrow, first painted as directional markers on the routes in Spain, was the work of Don Elias Valina Sampedro. 

 

If this was adopted by UNESCO as the official Camino de Santiago route-mark symbol then perhaps it should be standard for all the World Heritage routes.  Only certain sections of routes in other countries have WH status.   

2.      Creation of specific rules or laws to determine who is authorized to erect way marks; with fines or other sanctions for those who “freelance.”

3.      We propose the authorized way-markers be the same people who have always maintained the Way: Associations, confraternities and Jacobean entities without profit motives. 

 

I see what they are saying here but I can’t imagine restricting the painting of way-marks or directional symbols by law.  When I walked the Via Francigena in 2006, way-marks were few and far between.  Out of the way hotels and Casas had their own signs and way-marks directing tourists (and/or pilgrims) to their establishments.  Fining people (if they can prove that it was them) or applying other ‘sanctions’ seems a bit extreme!