Routes Santiago de Compostela - Traditional St-Jacques de Compostelle pilgrims' ways in the Landes

Reference : FR100

POSTCARD AVAILABLE FOR TRADE
Size : 10 x 15 cm

"Landes - France
Voies traditionnelles de Compostelle dans les Landes"

Location of LANDES departement in FRANCE :

The Way of St. James or St. James' Way (Spanish : El Camino de Santiago, French : Chemin de St-Jacques) is the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried.

The Way of St. James is said to have originated in France, where it is called Le Chemin de St. Jacques de Compostelle. This is the reason that the Spanish themselves refer to the Way of St. James as "the French road", since most of the pilgrims they saw were French. The origin of the pilgrimage is most often cited as the Codex Calixtinus, which is decidedly a French document. 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. They are today all routes of the Grande Randonnée network.

Traditional St-Jacques de Compostelle pilgrims' ways in the Landes

• AIRE-SUR-L'ADOUR : sarcophagus of Sainte-Quitterie
• DAX : the Apostle door of the cathedral
  
• SORDE-L'ABBAYE : discoid stelae
  
• HAGETMAU : Saint-Girons crypt
  
• SAINT-SEVER : one of the remarkable mediaeval painted capitals in the old abbey church
• HASTINGUES : the pilgrim of the motorway rest area.
  

UNESCO w.h.s. :
Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France

Date of inscription : 1998

Santiago de Compostela was the supreme goal for countless thousands of pious pilgrims who converged there from all over Europe throughout the Middle Ages. To reach Spain pilgrims had to pass through France, and the group of important historical monuments included in this inscription marks out the four routes by which they did so.