Caminho Portugues - Caminho Português

Caminho Portugues da Costa
Lisbon central portuguese coast Coimbra postage Rates Courel Barcelona Ponte de Lima Valenca do Minho Rio Minho Portugal/Spain tui redondela Pontevedra Rio Lerez padron Santiago de Compostela

The Caminho Portugues da Costa lies in Portugal and Spain.

This one James Way is the route many Portuguese pilgrims use to get from Portugal to the tomb of the apostle James the Greater in the Spanish city Santiago de Compostela to come. In Portugal there is also the Caminho Interior; the two routes converge before reaching the Spanish border. Caminho Portugues is the Portuguese name of the two routes; the Castilian ("Spanish") name is Camino Portuguese. Because the route is partly through Galicia runs, the route also has a Galician name, namely Camino Portugues. The route is also included in the network of European walking routes, namely as part of the European coastal route E9.

Marking of the Caminho Português

Character

Because the Caminho Português da Costa between Lisbon and postage runs largely through flat or hilly areas, it is considered an easy route. A faithful pilgrim who makes the pilgrimage to do penance will prefer the Caminho Interior which leads through the Portuguese mountain country. By the way, the two routes intersect Coimbra, so here you could switch from one route to another. The two routes finally come together in Porto, from where they continue through the coastal mountains to Santiago de Compostela. Between Porto and the Spanish-Portuguese border, there is a variant that runs even closer to the coast and rejoins the main route at Redondela. It passes the towns of Porto, Vila Conde, Póvoa do Varzim, Esposende, Viana do Castelo, Caminha, La Guardia, Baiona and Vigo.

The origin of the Portuguese pilgrimage to the tomb of James the Great lies in the time after the expulsion of the "Moors" (Muslims) from Portugal in the 12th century. The greatest prosperity came at the end of the Middle Ages and led to intensive cultural contacts between Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto and Santiago de Compostela, ie between Portugal and Galicia. After that, as a result of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and in some periods because of tensions between Portugal and Spain, pilgrimages became less common. In the second half of the twentieth century, the route became popular again, also with people other than Portuguese. The number of German and English publications about or in response to the Portuguese routes is remarkable.

This does not alter the fact that the Portuguese part of the road is still poorly documented and not marked everywhere. This makes it very difficult - especially for those who do not speak Portuguese - to find your way south of Porto. A few municipalities have taken the lead in properly maintaining the route on their own territory, but that leads to other remarkable situations, such as stretches of tens of kilometers along which no facilities for eating and sleeping can be found.

Course

Only the route from Porto to Santiago de Compostela is well described in various languages. For example in German: Raimund Joos: "Portugal Spanien: Jakobsweg Caminho Português", ed. Conrad Stein Verlag; ISBN 978-3-86686-383-5 . In Spain, the route is also well marked with scallops and other indications, such as maps and signposts. The Spanish Wikipedia page on the subject has this table of places and distances:

Ruta de la Costa desde Tuy

The Caminho Português in Spain

The Caminho Português in Spain