History of the Camino Primitivo
The Camino Primitivo witnessed the first pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in the 10th century. Like the rest of the pilgrim routes, the origin of the Camino Primitivo goes back to the discovery, in Santiago de Compostela, of the remains of the Apostle James the Elder, in the year 813.
The Apostle James had been assassinated in the year 42, in the lands of Jerusalem by the command of King Herod Agrippa I. However, the discovery took place in a forgotten Roman pavilion, located in a forest of West Galicia.
It tells the story that the Apostle was buried in that place by his disciples, in order to hide the corpse from Doña Lupe, the Queen of those lands, at the time.
The finding is attributed to Bishop Teodomiro, a member of the Diocese of Iria Flavia, who informed Alfonso II of Asturias, nicknamed the Chaste, of the discovery. Between the years 820 and 830 this confirmed that the bone remains found belonged to James the Elder.
On the evidence or reasons that led him to make such a finding, nothing is known. Nevertheless, it was an essential step for the construction of the history of Santiago de Compostela. Only the Asturian king Alfonso II, given his superior authority, derived from God, could make the discovery effective.
![]()
Thus the legend was born that the Apostle had been buried in that place and the location of the tomb became called Campus Stelae (Compostela). The monarch didn’t wait too long to see with his own eyes the newly discovered remains of the Apostle’s tomb.
The origin of the Camino Primitivo
As we have said before, the custom of making the pilgrimage that today is the Camino Primitivo began in the Middle Ages, more specifically, with King Alfonso II.
This King is also called “The First Pilgrim” for having been the one who inaugurated the custom of pilgrimage to Santiago. The hermit Paio saw a series of signs in the sky that told him where the Apostle’s tomb was. It was then that Alfonso II ordered to build a church.
It was he who rescued the bones of the Apostle James and who later began the habit of going to visit them as a symbol of respect or simply to ask for some help. Many of the faithful came after this and decided to do the Camino Primitivo so to fulfil some promise or, like the Kings themselves, to ask for something.
The truth is that the original road was slowly moving southward as the Reconquista progressed. It was normal, taking into account that all the routes of the Camino de Santiago not only had a religious purpose but also commercial one: it was necessary to open new routes easier to travel once it was gaining territory.
Subsequently, the road was branched and the current Camino Frances was made, much more passable, but not so well endowed with landscaped environments.
The first pilgrim of the Camino Primitivo
In the year 834, Alfonso II began, starting the route from Oviedo. He crossed the mountains that separate Asturias from Galicia, to the north of Os Ancares, passing the walls of Lugo.
Then he continued advancing westward, passing through the place where, according to the legend, some celestial signs indicated the place where the tomb of the Apostle was. Some scholars of the time pointed out that, since the Apostle’s body was discovered in a graveyard, these celestial lights were nothing more than wisps of fire, typical of this type of site.
Once in Santiago de Compostela, King Alfonso II, as a major indication of his interest in the sanctuary, embarked on a series of actions that gave rise to the current Cathedral of Santiago.
In the first place, he made a donation of three miles of land located around the tomb of the Apostle, which would be known as the Manor of Santiago and where the first clergymen would live.
![]()
This donation was completed with the order to build a Church in the place of discovery, the precursor of the present Cathedral, which was known as the Locus Sancti Lacobi (Holy place of Santiago), and of which hardly any remains are preserved.
At the same time, he requested the creation of a monastic community to guard the remains of the saint, which gave rise to San Salvador de Antealtares, the first Compostela Monastery and present Convent of San Paio.
The monarch is also credited with the creation of the legend of Santiago Matamoros. As they say, in a historical moment in which the Muslims had occupied a large part of current Spain, the Christian part of the ancient Roman Hispania had been confined in the North peninsular.
![]()
The monarch took advantage of the discovery of the remains to make the Apostle an emblem against the struggle of Islam, creating the figure of Santiago Matamoros. It is said that with it, the monarch intended to reassemble ideologically and morally his kingdom which was tottering against the overwhelming Muslim advance.
The apparition of alternatives to the Camino Primitivo
With this journey, the Asturian monarch created the layout of what is the first Camino de Santiago, the Camino Primitivo. Many of his subjects then followed the footsteps of their King. Some of them, in a search for an easier path less, farther away from the strife with the Muslims, opened the known route, today, known as the Camino del Norte.
At the end of the 10th century, with the advance of the reconquest of Muslim lands, the centre of power moved to the south, to León. At the beginning of the 11th century, the Monarchs Sancho III El Mayor and Sancho Ramírez of Navarre, together with Alfonso VI in the lands of Castilla y León, began to promote the Camino Frances.
A route much less harsh than the Camino Primitivo, travelled by Alfonso II of Asturias, the Camino Frances was regarded as well as a safe and friendly route for pilgrims arriving from all over Europe, becoming the main route throughout the Middle Ages.
In this way, the Camino Primitivo was relegated to the second position. However, the weight of the monarch was such in the construction of the Jacobean tradition, that during the Middle Ages, the passage through the Cathedral of Oviedo became a compulsory visit.
Oviedo Cathedral was dedicated to the Saviour. Therefore, according to a popular song of Pilgrim Origin: “Who visits James and not the saviour, serves the servant and ignores the Lord.”
For this reason, even today many of the routes of the Camino de Santiago, such as the Camino del Norte or the Camino Frances that uses the so-called Camino Real, have a variant that passes through the Asturian capital.
Decline and rebirth of the Camino Primitivo
From the 15th century onwards, the Camino Primitivo fell into oblivion. As in the entire Jacobean route, the 1378 schism, wars and diseases affected the number of pilgrim parishioners. On the Camino Primitivo, this impact was even greater given the route’s difficulty and the consolidation of routes much more accessible.
The Jacobean year of 1993, together with the declaration of the Camino Frances as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and of the first European itinerary of Cultural interest by the Council of Europe, Began an important resurgence of all the pilgrim routes. However, the Camino Primitivo was added quite late to this rebirth.
In 2010, which was also a Jacobean year, less than 3% of the pilgrims chose this route. And it is not until the year 2012 that the Camino Primitivo established a delimitation of the route to protect the road, varying in some sections from the historical one.
Camino Experts
24/7 Support
Happy Customers
Selected Hotels