It is a 485-mile journey from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela.
This so-called Camino Francés — know by most as the “French Way” — is not the only road leading to Santiago de Compostela, but it is by far the most popular one. Every year, from this small town in the south of France, tens of thousands of people set out on foot to the tomb of St. James the Apostle.
According to tradition, it is also the route that St. James, whose feast day is July 25, is believed to have walked following the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus to bring Christianity to the Iberian Peninsula.
Upon his return to Jerusalem, St. James became the first apostle to be martyred by beheading at the order of King Herod Agrippa I around A.D. 44. According to legend, James’ disciples carried his body back to Galicia, burying his remains in the cathedral of what is now Santiago de Compostela. A major pilgrimage route of medieval Christianity was born.
The vistas make it easy to connect with God along the Camino.(Photo: Bénédicte Cedergren)But what was once a
