A Historical Timeline of the Camino de Santiago
Planning to walk the Camino de Santiago? Learn about the history of this legendary route before you go.
44 CE: Saint James is martyred in the Holy Land. His disciples deliver his body to Galicia, burying him at Santiago de Compostela.
711: North African Berbers and Arabs invade and gain control of Iberia except for narrow northern territories where Christian kingdoms would later develop the Camino.
778: Charlemagne sacks Pamplona. Just outside of Roncesvalles, locals retaliate against his troops led by Roland.
814: The hermit Pelayo follows a trail of stars, discovering Saint James’s tomb.
c. 818-842: King Alfonso II of Asturias makes the first official pilgrimage to Saint James’s tomb.
950-951: Bishop Godescalc of Le Puy-en-Velay in France makes the first known pilgrimage to Santiago’s tomb from outside of Spain.
997: Almanzor of the Caliphate of Córdoba sacks Santiago de Compostela but protects Santiago’s tomb.
1019-1109: Lifetime of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, the hermit, engineer, and most celebrated builder on the Camino, who dedicates himself to building roads, bridges, hospices, and churches.
1075: Construction begins on the third and current Catedral de Santiago de Compostela.
Early 1100s: The Moroccan ambassador for Almoravid king Ali ibn Yusuf observes while traveling by horseback that the road to Santiago was so congested by pilgrims that it was hard to move along it. The popularity of the Camino reaches its height in the 11th and 12th centuries.
1080-1163: Lifetime of San Juan de Ortega, fellow engineer and student of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, who survives a shipwreck returning from Jerusalem and in gratitude builds a hospice in the wildest stretch of the Camino in San Juan de Ortega, making it safer, and devotes his life to serving pilgrims.
1118: Order of the Templar Knights is founded to protect Christian pilgrims; their presence on the Camino grows.
c. 1131: The first pilgrim’s guide, the Codex Calixtinus, is written.
1188: Master Mateo finishes the Pórtico de la Gloría (western gate) of Santiago’s cathedral, completing the cathedral.
1221: Construction begins on Burgos’s Gothic Catedral de Santa María.
1254-1284: The Cantigas de Santa María (some 420 sung poems in honor of miracles enacted by Mary) are composed. Several honor the Camino’s Nuestra Señora La Blanca in Villalcázar de Sirga.
1258: Construction begins on León’s Gothic Catedral de Santa María.
1517: Martin Luther’s 95 Theses kicks off the Protestant Reformation, one effect being a reduced interest in religious pilgrimage.
1879: Archaeological excavations confirm that the hill under Santiago’s cathedral was an ancient burial mound contemporary with Saint James’s life.
1960s-1980s: Elias Valiño Sampedro dedicates himself to retracing, mapping, and marking with yellow arrows the whole length of the Camino Francés.
1987: The European Community names the Camino a European Cultural Itinerary.
1993: UNESCO declares the Camino de Santiago a Universal Patrimony of Humanity.
2021: Pope Francis extends the 2021 holy year to 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic’s global shutdown of travel.
2022: The Federación Internacional del Camino de Santiago (FICS) applies to UNESCO to designate and protect “traditional Jacobean hospitality,” especially donativo establishments, as Intangible Cultural Heritage.
2024: Nearly half a million pilgrims collect their Compostelas, the largest number in any year since the Camino’s revival.
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