The Way of St. James (Spanish Camino de Santiago, Galician: Camiño de Santiago) describes a number of pilgrimage routes through Europe, all of which have the alleged grave of the Apostle James in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (Spain) as their destination.
First and foremost, this means the Camino Francés, the high medieval main traffic axis in northern Spain that leads from the Pyrenees to Jacob's Tomb and connects the royal cities of Jaca, Pamplona, Estella, Burgos and León.
This route, as it is still used today, was created in the first half of the 11th century.
A pilgrim guide from the 12th century, which is contained in the Book of James (Latin Liber Sancti Jacobi), the main source for the veneration of James in the High Middle Ages, named four other paths for the French region, which unite in one strand in the vicinity of the Pyrenees.
After the revival of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in the 1970s and 1980s, the main Spanish route was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993.
In 1998 the four French paths described in the Liber Sancti Jacobi also received this title.
Before that, in 1987, the Council of Europe had elevated the routes taken by pilgrims in Europe to the European cultural route and recommended their identification.
(Source: Wikipedia)