There are many travelers who are surprised to find the characteristic indicator that guides pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago on Calle Mayor in Alicante, the Jacobin scallop indicating here the direction to take to reach the Obradoiro?
It is not the only one, there are more identical signs in different parts of the city. The route exists, it is obvious, you just have to walk, pedal if you prefer, and one arrives in Santiago sooner or later, but does it have a historical basis as a Jacobean route?
Since 1993, there has been an Association of Friends of the Camino de Santiago in Alicante that offers information and organizes activities related to the subject. They are responsible for the initiative to promote the old itinerary that started from the Basilica of Santa María and continued along Villavieja Street to the Plaza de Santa Faz, Calle Mayor and Portal de Elche.
Still inside the city, the route takes us along San Francisco Street, Maissonave, Aguilera and Orihuela avenues, towards Plaza de la Luna and Vial de los Cipreses. From there we continue towards Villena, Yecla… to summarize, we will step into the lands of Alicante, Murcia, Albacete, Toledo, Madrid, Ávila, Valladolid and Zamora until we connect with the Via de la Plata in Benavente or the busy French Way in Astorga.
According to the itinerary proposed by the association, it takes 40 days, with stages of about 25 kilometers, which amounts to about six hours walking, although it is not only the distance, but also the inclination of the terrain, the heat, or the type of pavement which influences the hardness of the route. And even connecting with the most popular routes, it is advisable to plan each day very well if you do not want to be forced to sleep outdoors or pay the high price of a hotel, because hostels are scarce.
It is true that pilgrimage was never as abundant as it is today, and in several periods of its long history it declined to irrelevance, but we want to know if this proposal was born exclusively from the impulse that the Xunta de Galicia, with the invaluable collaboration of Juan Paul II, gave to the phenomenon from the 80s of the last century or the thing comes from back.
The answer lies in the abundant documentation that the Federation of Associations of Friends of the Camino disseminates in its publications. It follows that the so-called “Southeast Road” is described in 1546 by the royal courier Pedro Juan Villuga in his work “Repertoire of all the roads of Spain, never seen until now in which they will make any trip they want to take very profitable.” for all walkers”, which describes the itinerary between Alicante and Santiago de Compostela, which in turn is the heritage of medieval Hispanic roads.
But in its eagerness to establish this Mediterranean-Atlantic contact, the Valencian association also documented the so-called Camino de Levante, or Ruta de la Lana, which connects Alicante and València with Santiago de Compostela through more than 1,200 kilometers along a route that gains north via Cuenca to reach Burgos, whose extraordinary cathedral is no small incentive to choose this route.
The origin of this route dates back to the times when pilgrims from Naples, Sicily or the Balearic Islands, and even Rome, Jerusalem and Palestine, arrived on the Peninsula through the port of Valencia and continued their journey to Santiago following part of the Via Augusta. Roman or, according to the Repertory of Paths of the aforementioned Juan Villuga, along the Camino de la Lana. In fact, in Valencia, various orders and institutions related to the Camino de Santiago and several pilgrim hospitals existed since the 14th century.
The name Wool Route is explained because it is one of the first routes dedicated to transhumance in Spain, and it was used by ancient shearers and merchants to take the wool of their sheep north and sell it.
Despite its age, it was not until 1999 that a link between the Wool Route and the Camino de Santiago was established, when the book The Wool Route: the Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago de Compostela (from Cuenca to Burgos) was published. , which tells the story of the route that three pilgrims made in 1624 to visit the tomb of Santiago Apóstol. This work confirmed that many pilgrims reached the French Way thanks to transhumance routes, as is the case.
