So what's the story? Why do people set out from home, travel across the world, and walk for days to Santiago de Campostela?
Ancient pagans noticed that the Milky Way lined up with the north coast of the Iberian peninsula. They called it Campostela, the field of stars. Following the Field of Stars toward the west, they began a pilgrimage that ended at high on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic, where they would burn their cloths to symbolize the end of their old life and a new beginning.
In the 800s, Spainish Christians were fighting off the Muslim invaders from the south, when someone "found" the bones of Saint James--Santiago. Installed along the old pilgrimage route in a city that took his name, the relics became to focus of a new pilgrimage. People began to travel from all over Europe to pray at the cathedral there. Lepers walked and prayed for healing. Criminals walked and prayed for rehabilitation. Kings, queens, nobles, and even popes walked to Santiago and prayed. With Jerusalem and Rome, this was one of the most important destinations for pilgrims in the Middle Ages.
In the 1990s, the European Union made the pilgrimage route its first "cultural itinerary" and kicked off the new craze of walking the Way of Santiago.
