The Primitive Road: a World Heritage Tour

The Camino Primitivo de Santiago, like the Camino Inglés, has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 2015. And it's called the Primitive Path because it's the first pilgrimage route, the oldest. How did the Primitive Way emerge? What is your journey? In this article we reveal these issues.

The Primitive Way: How was he born?

The Camino Primitivo is the first pilgrimage route of the Camino de Santiago, the oldest. The first pilgrim king was precisely the Astur-Galician monarch Alfonso II the Casto: in the first third of the ninth century, he traveled to Santiago to confirm whether the remains that had just appeared in Compostela were indeed those of the Apostle.

The king's devotion to the Jacobean cause was decisive to cement the new cult. But not only that. Alfonso II ordered the construction of the first church in Santiago and made donations for which he was the first monastic community to meet the demands of worship at the altar of Santiago, the monastery of Antealtars.

The Primitive Way was a route frequented by the Astur-Galician people during the ninth century and much of the X. But it also attracted pilgrims from northern Spain and Europe.

What is the Camino Primitivo of Santiago?

The Primitive Way is considered low difficulty. It is also the perfect starting point for discovering the path of the first known route. The Camino Primitivo consists of 13 stages, although the route departing from Roncesvalles has always been the most convenient, from the point of view of infrastructure and services.

This route links Oviedo (Asturias) with the city of Santiago de Compostela. And one of its great attractions is the fact that its route is largely through Roman roads.

The current itinerary reproduces the original: part of Oviedo and crosses Asturias through Las Regueras, Grado, Salas, Tineo, Pola de Allande and Grandas de Salime. From here he enters Lugo through the port of Acebo and links to the French Way, in Palas de Rei.