About the Camino de Santiago

Officially, the Camino is any passage in Europe that leads to the city of Santiago de Compostela – essentially it starts at your doorstep! However, what most people refer to as the Camino de Santiago is just one of these routes called the Camino Francés – the 500-mile path that starts just over the border of Spain in St. Jean Pied de Port, France. From there, the Camino winds through 4 of Spain’s 15 different regions.

First, travelers make the grueling trek up and over the Pyrenees Mountains, and descend into Navarra – a vibrant, green expanse of mountainous highlands and home to the famous Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. Next, they pass through La Rioja – full of rich vineyards that produce the wine for which this small region is famous. The bulk of the Camino passes through Castilla y León – in which lies a terrain that many find to be the most challenging – the Meseta. This flat, seemingly endless landscape of green and wheat colored crops is said to remove all external distraction, leaving a pilgrim with only their thoughts for company.

In contrast, Castilla y Leon also boasts the beautiful mountain pass where the renowned Cruz de Ferro is located – a huge iron cross under which pilgrims leave a rock imbued with whatever they wish to let go of. The last region, Galicia is a glorious sight to behold, and its rolling hills and lush eucalyptus forests provide a wonderful welcome into Santiago de Compostela.

All along the Camino de Santiago, there are special pilgrim hostels, called “albergues,” which are run by volunteer “hospitaleros” – seasoned pilgrims whose love for the Camino inspired them to return and devote spans of their life to it and its pilgrims. Albergues can be found nearly every five miles, so one may walk as much or as little as desired in a day, although there are instances when the next sign of civilization is more than 10 miles away.

A rare few do the Camino in as little as 20 days, trekking close to 25 miles a day. The majority of pilgrims take between 4 and 6 weeks to walk the entire 500-mile journey. Though it is traditional to walk the Camino on foot, some elect to do it by bicycle or horse. Whatever one’s method of transportation, whichever Camino one chooses to do, and however fast one’s pace is, each of the millions who have stepped foot on the Camino feel its inexplicable magic and are forever changed by it.

History & Legends

The Camino de Santiago is named for Santo Iago, or Saint James – one of the 12 Apostles and rumored brother of Jesus Christ. According to legend, his body was found in a boat that washed ashore in Northern Spain thousands of years ago. His remains were transported inland and were buried under what is now the grand Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, which marks the end of the Camino. His bones were rediscovered in the 9th century, when a hermit saw a field of stars that led him to the ancient, forgotten tomb.

In the millennium following its re-discovery, millions from all over Europe have walked thousands of miles to visit the remains of the disciple. At the height of its popularity in the 11th and 12th centuries, anywhere from 250,000 – 1,000,000 people a year are said to have made the pilgrimage.

According to Catholic tradition, if you faithfully completed the arduous trek, one’s sins were forgiven. If one completed the pilgrimage during a Holy Year – the infrequent occasion when St. James Day, July 25th, falls on a Sunday – a plenary indulgence was granted, allowing one to bypass purgatory and enter straight into heaven. In the Middle Ages, wealthy aristocrats would often hire people to walk in their name in order to, by proxy, absolve them of their sins without actually setting foot on the Camino.

Historically, many countries have provided criminals with the choice to either serve prison time, or do the Camino. Even today, Belgium will sometimes allow minor crimes to be pardoned by completing the pilgrimage. While, in these cases, the Camino was used as a form of punishment, its impact upon a pilgrim’s connection with themselves and their world community could instead be regarded as an unconventional form of rehabilitation.

The Camino de Santiago's creation remains shrouded in myth. One such belief, not frequently found in print, is that the Spanish government and the Catholic Church invented the entire story to entice Christians to Spain, so that once there, they could be enlisted to fight against the Moors invading from the South. It is also claimed to be an ancient Celtic route, as well as astrologically and energetically aligned to promise personal transformation and spiritual growth – whether one is seeking it or not.

UNESCO has declared it a Universal Patrimony of Humanity and a World Heritage Site. In 1987, the European Union declared the Camino de Santiago to be the first European Cultural Itinerary. Although originally known as a Christian pilgrimage, the Camino now attracts people of all faiths and backgrounds – from atheists to Buddhists, adventurers to mourners, and college students to retired friends.

Pilgrim Blogs

The Non-Walker's Guide to The Camino

Pilgrim Roads

Ramond’s Camino de Santiago.

Johnnie Walker to Santiago

Wise Pilgrim

30 Days to Santiago

Online Resources

American Pilgrims on The Camino

Camino Pilgrim Guides

Jacobeo (Español)

Correo del Camino (Español)

Peregrinando
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Our fundraising trek to Santiago

With your help, we have made it to Santiago and have enough money to complete our feature length theatrical version. We will be submitting this 80-minute documentary to film festivals worldwide. We couldn't of done it without all the individual donations, whether they were $5 or a $1,000. Every donation helped us reach our goal and we can't thank you enough. Gracias. Having raised the 225k, means that we have covered all office expenses, editorial expenses and online costs for our theatrical version only. The 225k also represents three years of hard work by our Camino staff. One of the reasons we were able to achieve this incredible feat with such a tight budget, is because our director and all our producers continue to work without pay.

On to Finisterre...

Our next push to Finesterre, is to raise funds to edit our one hour TV version as well as create our DVD. During our international festival run, we plan on connecting with international television stations worldwide. This is an expensive process as all countries have different technical requirements. Additionally, we will have to provide all the translations ourselves. We plan on translating the film into Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Korean.

Concurrently, we will be making a DVD version for sale world wide via our website. On the DVD, we will include an expanded version with additional pilgrims and their stories, which did not make the final cut. Cutting pilgrims from the film was an inevitable part of our film making process due to making an 80 minute film out of 300 hours of footage. But they area all amazing stories and we plan to bring more of them to light on our expanded DVD. We will also include many deleted scenes of our main pilgrims, a behind-the-scenes featurette, hospitalero portraits and much more!

...and to the world

Our third and final push to reach the entire world is to fund a year of marketing/distribution and publicist fees. This means keeping two office staff and hiring a publicist to promote the film. The hiring of the publicist is easily the most expensive item we have, but it guarantees our film will reach a wider audience.