Camino de Santiago de Compostela

[sillydoll]

The Xunta will invest a total of 570,000 euros to rehabilitate and improve the Camino Primitivo as it passes through Galicia.
The regional government wants to promote the "others" Jacobean routes to decongest the French Way. This half a million euros is only a small part of total Jacobean investment which has an overall plan of the regional government for the forthcoming year amounting to 8 million.
However, this plan will only succeed if the Ministry of Development agrees to provide 75 per cent of this amount.
In the case of the Camino Primitivo, conditioning of the route will involve an investment of 250,000 euros, the actions of recovery, conservation and promotion of cultural heritage will absorb another 200,000 euros, and finally, the work on improving infrastructure and services such as shelters and care facilities for the pilgrims, will have a budget of 120,000 euros.

The Camino Primitivo is well known because it was the one that followed the King Alfonso II el Casto in the ninth century to visit the newly discovered tomb of St. James. The current route faithfully reproduces the original, starting from Oviedo and Asturias across all the councils of the West: Regueras, Grado, Salas, Tineo, Pola de Allande y Grandas de Salime. El Camino Primitivo enters Lugo through el puerto del Acebo y enlaza with el Camino Francés in Palas de Rei two days walk to Santiago de Compostela.

[peregrina2000]

Thanks for this information, Sil.

I suppose this plan makes sense from many perspectives, but it certainly suggests that the Primitivo will rapidly become less primitivo. I walked it in October of last year, and I have to say it was just incredible -- the remoteness was tempered by adequate infrastructure all along the way (with one or two exceptions, like the rat-infested albergue in the former jail in Grandas de Salime, but the private hotel nearby was just great); the residents along the way were invariably interested, congenial, supportive, with not an ounce of cynicism or peregrino-overload; and the scenery is incredible. So I would say, get to the Camino Primitivo while you can still experience some of its real magic!

Laurie