![]() ![]() At a time when there were no printing presses and most didn't know to read, songs where the best way to teach people: memorising information through chorus, rhymes, rhythm. The importance of songs in history is often forgotten, but really they were key forms of communication and dissemination of culture. It is from Cluny that the richest and most abundant songbooks emerged. ![]() It's for this reason that the main, most 'official' start point of the Camino de Santiago is from the now rather decrepit Tour St Jacques in central Paris (just behind the Louvre museum). In fact, it was the abbey of Cluny, in Paris, was the real powerhouse behind the establishment of the pilgrimage. The pilgrimage should therefore be seen as part of a great cultural push by Christian northern Europe to overcome the Muslim south. Lest we forget that culturally, Moorish Spain was shining a good deal more brightly a thousand years ago than were the countries of northern Europe. These pilgrim pathways spread language, art, architecture, cuisine, ideas and all manner of learning both into Spain and from Spain out into northern Europe. ![]() But the major routes today derive from the 12 th century Codex Calixtinus (Book of Saint James), which included descriptions and itineraries to the cathedral of Santiago, from the main starting points. In fact, any path to Santiago de Compostela is a pilgrim's path (each year thousands of pilgrims begin the route directly from their front doorsteps). James).įor centuries, pilgrims crossed Europe into Spain on various major routes, depending on whether they were coming from the north, east or south. Last year alone, more than 230,000 followed in the footsteps of their medieval forebears along the 'Camino de Santiago' (Way of St. A 1,200-year old European pilgrimage route is experiencing a revival lately. ![]()
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