Camino de Santiago

Galicia, Andalusia, Extremadura and Castile and Leon also agree to convey to the central government the need to create a National Plan of the Roads of Santiago for the global promotion of the Xacobean Routes, especially the Via de la Plata.

The Xunta de Galicia, Turismo Porto e Norte de Portugal, the Dirección Regional de Cultura do Norte and the Agrupación Europea de Cooperación Territorial Galicia-Norte de Portugal will collaborate in the European project “Fazendo Camiño”, with the aim of consolidating the routes of the Camino de Santiago in the Euroregion Galicia-Norte de Portugal and promote its sustainable use as a cross-border cultural and natural heritage resource.

This week Galicia hosts the first actions of the European project consisting of technical meetings to raise awareness of the management model in Galicia as well as work for the next Holy Year, field visits to see the public network of hostels of the Xunta, showing the work carried out in the rehabilitation of buildings for the reception of pilgrims taking as an example the Camino de Fisterra and Muxía.

Fazendo Camino was approved in the framework of the second call of the Interreg V Programme (POCTEP) will be developed until 2021, with a series of activities that seek to improve the joint management and tourist influx of the Camino de Santiago, as well as increase local involvement in the conservation and protection of the Pilgrim’s Way.

Among the different programmed activities will include the creation in Portugal of the Luso-Galician Council of the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago in which will be represented all the beneficiaries that will seek to achieve the institutional recognition needed by the Jacobean routes in Portugal for their milking and sustainable development.

Studies of the Way in Portugal and Galicia
By virtue of this programme, it is also planned to carry out studies and statistical analyses that will allow us to know the particularities of the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago in Portuguese and Galician territory, which will serve as the basis for a joint cross-border strategy taking into account all the components of the Pilgrim’s Way, both territorial and tourist, economic and heritage.

Joint promotion of the Silver Route
Also within the scope of the promotion of the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago de Compostela, a meeting was held between those responsible for culture and the presidents of the autonomous communities of Galicia, Andalusia, Extremadura and Castilla y León. Among other agreements, the meeting concluded that it was necessary to transfer to the central government the need to create a National Plan for the Pilgrims’ Roads to Santiago for the global promotion of the Xacobean Routes and the connection with the successive holy years.

The four communities also agreed to create a working group that would allow for coordinated planning for the development of this route as well as creating a working group that would allow for coordinated planning for its development, also requesting the inclusion of Galicia and Andalusia in the candidacy of the Silver Route, led by Extremadura, which is currently on the Indicative List of Spanish Candidatures to form part of the Heritage of Humanity. Finally, they transferred the decision to request the Jacobean Council to incorporate Extremadura and Andalusia into this organization, since only the communities through which World Heritage trails pass form part of this organization.