The Way of St. James: An Approximation to its Polysemic Character from the Viewpoint of Cultural and Tourism Geography

Abstract

During the Middle Ages, the Way of St. James was one of the three major pilgrimage routes of Christian Western Europe, together with Rome and Jerusalem. Although it has suffered times of crisis, in the last decades of the 20th century it was largely revived and is nowadays the most vibrant pilgrimage route. This process of revival has been accompanied by the recuperation and renewal of the image of the pilgrim. Given that each period has defined its own pilgrimage patterns and endowed sacred spaces with unique characteristics, we begin by briefly exploring the origins of the Jacobean pilgrimage to then focus on the current process of revival and the contemporary pilgrim-tourist. We analyse the polysemic character of the Way by emphasising five key factors that have led to its revival over time and contributed to forging today’s pilgrimage.