The Camino de Santiago is the most famous and frequented pilgrimage route in Europe. It developed between the 11th and 13th centuries through the combined efforts of the crown, the papacy, and monastic orders, becoming an international center of pilgrimage.
Since the Middle Ages, pilgrims from all over Europe traveled on foot, on horseback, or by ship, supported by a network of inns established along the route.
The tradition also recalls the pilgrimage of Saint Francis of Assisi in 1214, an event marking one of the most important chapters of the Camino: the renewal of Western spirituality through the educational, evangelizing, and fraternal work of the Franciscans.
Today, the pilgrimage experience to Santiago de Compostela retains a strong symbolic value, offering an alternative rooted in universal human values in contrast to an increasingly alienating and competitive world. The route is a spiritual, historical, cultural, and environmental itinerary.
The French section was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993; in 2015, the recognition was extended to the Primitive and Northern Ways.
