The Pilgrim Refuge

The Camino de Santiago is a Catholic pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia that has its roots in an ancient celtic pilgrimage to Finisterrre. Finis Terre means the end of the earth in Latin, and people in pre Christian times would go there to worship the sun which would be setting over the Atlantic Ocean.

In Christian times the pilgrimage was revived when a shepherd supposedly discovered the body of James who catholics believe was the apostle to Spain. This is all a myth, but that does not prevent thousands of Pilgrims from coming every year to walk the route to Santiago de Compostela. Recently this pilgrimage has become very popular and over a hundred and sixty thousand people walked the Camino Frances last year.

Most of the pilgrims are not catholics at all, and having walked the Camino myself I discovered that many people are doing it as a kind of spiritual journey to try and make some connection with "they don't know what" There are those that bypass the Catholic shrines and go on to Finisterre in an attempt to revive the Pagan traditions of the pre Christian era.One of the highlights of this pagan route is to burn ones clothes in a bonfire at the ends of the earth.