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Does anyone know what the origin and story is surrounding the tradition of walking to Fisterra & Muxía after arriving in Santiago de Compostela?

pitztop

Solvitur ambulando
Time of past OR future Camino
2022 - Camino de Levante
I love the walk from Santiago de Compostela to Muxía and Fisterra. I have walked to the coast four times and hope to be able to walk this way many more times in the future after arriving in Santiago de Compostela. I know in my soul that my camino is truly complete when I sit on the Priaia de Mar de Fora (some call it the "hippy beach") in Fisterra sipping a glass of vino tinto, watching the sunset, and reflecting on my journey. The experience always brings on tears of gratitude and joy and is a deeply personal and spiritual moment for me. Over the years this has become my personal tradition to signify the end of my camino.

As I was walking to Muxía and Fisterra from Santiago de Compostela a week ago, I began wondering why this is an official camino route since it is the only camino route I know of that actually goes away from the Santiago de Compostela cathedral. Does anyone know what the religious or spiritual tradition is behind walking on to Fisterra and/or Muxía after reaching Santiago de Compostela? Even though going to the coast (especially Fisterra) has become a sacred goal for me personally, I have often wondered if there is some historical reason for this camino to the coast after arriving in Santiago de Compostela. I am very interested in learning about the story and am most grateful for any insight any of you might have about this.
 
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I am glad you enjoy this end of the road. There are many Camino related stories about both Finisterre and Muxia. Both places have their charm and can provide a great spot to end you journey and contemplate.

These two places are more associated with the end of the Camino, rather then Ferrol and A Coruna which are landing sites for Pilgrims on their way to Santiago on the English Way.

I like tale that ancient Celtics used to to follow the stars in the Milky Way to the end of the known earth at Finistere to throw the remains of the summer King into the waves there to ensure a good harvest. But as a culture that didn't write it's own history this my have been a symbolic offering, or just a myth. It's not even the most western spot on contenintal Europe so it's hard to be truely accurate.

Who cares, it's a good enough story, and a place with enough memories for us to leave our summer King.
 
Another tale/myth is that many pilgrims coming from the interior of Europe had never seen the ocean. Having walked perhaps thousands of kilometers to reach Santiago, a few extra kms to see the ocean for the first time was no big deal.
 
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You could try looking at some of the earlier threads around pagan & pre-Christian pilgrimages to the end-of-the-world. There was, reportedly, a practice amongst roman Mythraics to make that journey. The wall paintings in the crypt at Boveda on the way from Lugo to Sobrado being one tiny snippet of an indicator.

The modern tradition is very modern though there has been a long tradition of pilgrimage to Muxia that has nothing to do with the Jacobean pilgrimage.
 
While the Milky Way does not run east-west, it certainly is prominent. Muxia has a strong claim as a pilgrimage destination. The hospitalero at Bela Muxia has an entire book on it! I think Fisterra is a more recent destination.
 
Santiago de Compostela is connected to St James. He was faithful to Jesus, who ordered them to go to the End of the World. At that Roman time it was generally understood, where FINIS TERRE is. Romans gave the name.
Or I am not right?
 
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Same as for the OP the true end of Camino for me is coming to the ocean.

But if you start walking in Fisterra-Muxia or Muxia-Fisterra and then to Santiago you can get the Compostela. So actually it is a official Jacobean pilgrim route ;)
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Before going back to Jerusalem he preached in Spain. Records are at least from Zaragoza (ex Caesaraugusta).
 
I have often wondered if there is some historical reason for this camino to the coast after arriving in Santiago de Compostela. I am very interested in learning about the story and am most grateful for any insight any of you might have about this.
There is next to nothing known about any pilgrimage, Christian or otherwise, to Fisterra and Muxia before the year 1400 but there's a lot of enthralling speculation.

From 1400 onwards, we have written reports of Saint James pilgrims who went to Fisterra. I have one such report and read extracts from others. These people were all seasoned travellers or came from Italy or had crossed the Mediterranean or the Atlantic Ocean on their way to Santiago and had seen the sea before so they don't mention anything about any particular impact of seeing the ocean or finding closure. In the book I have (written by an Austrian who went on pilgrimage from Vienna to Santiago via Italy and the sea in 1654), the author just says: "I have now finished my pilgrimage to Saint James and there's a bit of time left and I will visit the outermost border of Hispania and Europe, namely Finisterrae" (Europeans knew by that time that the world didn't end there). Then he describes the church Santa Maria in Fisterra and that the image of Maria causes miracles. Then the same for the church Nuestra Señora de la Barca in Muxia and the stones there and their legends.

I'm afraid there may be no great stories to be found in the distant past.
 
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Yes, Muxia was a place for pagan worship where the main subject was the stones (pedra de abalar and pedra dos cadris).
Other pagan sites (that I know) in the Galician coast are O Facho (Cangas de Morrazo), Mount Pindo (Carnota) and San Andres de Teixido.
 
Santiago de Compostela is connected to St James. He was faithful to Jesus, who ordered them to go to the End of the World. At that Roman time it was generally understood, where FINIS TERRE is. Romans gave the name.
Or I am not right?
Not really. The Romans didn't call the place that is known to us as Fisterra (Galician) or Finisterre (Spanish) anything that resembles "end of the world" or "end of the land". While the name is derived from Latin, it appeared for the first time only in the Middle Ages. I can dig up a few studies or books where it is explained that stories and rituals surrounding it have been somewhat reinvented by contemporary authors or by those writing in the 19th century if someone's terribly interested in these sources which I somehow doubt. 😉 😇

It's a great place to be enjoyed by us in the here and now and for what it means to any of us individually now.
 
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St. James followed Acts 1:8. Finnis Terrae was a Roman outpost which means literally "End of the Earth". So he went to the ends of the Earth. So if you talk about Camino, St James and Finisterre, this is the link that I can think of that binds them together. It was to spread the Gospel of Jesus which is "Love".
 
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Santiago de Compostela is connected to St James. He was faithful to Jesus, who ordered them to go to the End of the World. At that Roman time it was generally understood, where FINIS TERRE is. Romans gave the name.
Or I am not right?


At the time of Yeshua Spain was a civilised and wealthy colony of Rome - James would have gone to the diaspora Jews who were in that particularly rich and busy region, as it was too early - some twenty years pre Paul - for the conversion of the gentiles. Both Yeshua and his followers were Jews in a Jewish society, all his teachings were Jewish, so some of the disciples carried the new Jewish teaching to the Jewish diaspora (without much success). The area was rich; silver mines, lead mines, fertile farming, and sea trade - we still get to walk on some of the Roman roads that carried the silver away!

As far as Romans were concerned the "end of the world" in that period would probably have been far to the north, the 'Misty Isles', Brittania, although they were already trading there - as were other nations throughout the Mediterranean.
Twenty years later the Romans invaded and occupied us (for 400 years) so who knows where they then saw the "end of the world" - Scotland? the ice lands of northern Europe?

There is a British tale that Yeshua in his youth visited Glastonbury with his uncle who had merchant ships (but a very late, 8th or 9th century myth).
 
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St. James followed Acts 1:8. Finnis Terrae was a Roman outpost which means literally "End of the Earth". So he went to the ends of the Earth. So if you talk about Camino, St James and Finisterre, this is the link that I can think of that binds them together.
There never was a Roman outpost called "Finnis Terrae" anywhere. And secondly, that was said to all the apostles and not just to James. And lastly, this connection only works on the basis of a suitable Bible version in English where this short phrase in Acts 1:8 says indeed "to the end of the earth". It fails miserably for Latin because the versions of the Vulgate that I just checked don't say "finis terrae" at all in Acts 1:8. They say: "ad ultimum terrae". 🤓
 
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There never was a Roman outpost called "Finnis Terrae". And secondly, that was said to all the apostles and not just to James. And lastly, this connection works on the basis of a suitable Bible version in English where this short phrase in Acts 1:8 says indeed "to the end of the earth". It doesn't work for any linguistic version of the Bible and more importantly it fails miserably for Latin because the versions of the Vulgate that I just checked don't say "finis terrae" at all in Acts 1:8. They say: "ad ultimum terrae". 🤓

hahaha.. Acts of apostle was written by St. Luke in Greek so the "ad ultimum terrae" you mentioned was prolly the closest translation of latin in Greek. In the times of Romans, there is a likelihood that this means "End of the Earth" and there is a Finnis Terrae, a Roman outpost in Northern Spain, it was probably the westernmost land at that time of continental Europe as far as people of the Roman empire is concerned. So for them, that is the "End of the Earth". Yes, It was said to all the apostles but for some reason (maybe by drawing lots, by age, or by sheer luck or discernment or whatever reason it is) St James was tasked voluntarily or involuntarily to go to Spain to evangelize the Celtic Spain. The rest is history.
 
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Totally :).

well, there is a likelihood and probably you are not 2000 years old and if you are not, you were never there. We just use both what was handed over through oral tradition and written texts..
 
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well unless, you are 2000 years old you were never there. We just use both what was handed over through oral tradition and written texts..
I didn't make any statements at all about what happened 2000 years ago. I also have no issues with what people believe.

I find it interesting how places get their names and how they change over centuries. For some places in Europe, we can trace names back for thousands of years, for many others or perhaps most, not more than 1000 to 1200 years.
 
I didn't make any statements at all about what happened 2000 years ago. I also have no issues with what people believe.

I find it interesting how places get their names and how they change over centuries. For some places in Europe, we can trace names back for thousands of years, for many others or perhaps most, not more than 1000 to 1200 years.

Well, you had a problem with me using likelihood and probably. The reason for that is that I was not there 2000 years ago and I just rely on oral traditions and written texts.
 
Well, you had a problem with me using likelihood and probably. The reason for that is that I was not there 2000 years ago and I just rely on oral traditions and written texts.
No, I addressed the issue of the name Fisterra/Finisterre. We happen to know what the Romans called the capes in this area. None of them was called Finis Terrae.
 
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No, I addressed the issue of the name Fisterra/Finisterre. We happen to know what the Romans called the capes in this area. None of them was called Finis Terrae.

Well, the technical term nowadays is Cabo Finisterre which is in Castillian and Cabo Fisterra which is Gallego. Fisterra comes from Latin "Finis Terrae" meaning Land's end. It was believed back then during the Roman times that it was the westernmost land.
 
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It's broken so we don't mind who borrows it ;)
Your post made me sad. I reread the last chapter of Lord of the Rings, titled, "To the Grey Havens," which always makes me cry. There is something in this tradition which points to the mystery of what happens to the person at death: movement into the infinite unknown, which we can only approach with metaphor.
But my personal interpretation of why many people these days feel moved to end their pilgrimage at Finisterre or Muxia is much more simple and psychological. I see people standing on the beach staring out at a distance that they can in no way cross on foot and reconciling themselves to ending their pilgrim walk and returning to the everyday. Many of them may not know that their feet will never be reconciled to standing still. I don't know how the "stone boat" of St James enters into this story. But it makes me very sad too to think that your boat is broken.
 
@Albertagirl , thank you. I didn’t mean to make anyone sad but more to stake a claim for the older traditions than either Christianity or the modern Camino. And yet that was the story that I learned from Gran and it must be an old one because JRRT borrowed it and wove it into his wonderful tale. There are similar but variant legends - of the lands beyond or even below the waters in many traditions and most carry a sense of separation and loss. I think your interpretation is sound - the end-of the- world, the end-of-the- journey they are real places.
 
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We have Lands End which is the south western tip of the UK, so maybe many cultures whose land ended at an ocean that seemed to go on forever named the furthermost point the same? Or maybe the ancient Celtic peoples were natural poets?

"Look to the west where the sea winds blow
and the ancient rollers break,
for a tall fair ship with golden sails
and a shimmering emerald wake."
 
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We have Lands End which is the northernmost tip of Scotland (it isn't really, there is another head that is slightly further north) so maybe many cultures whose land ended at an ocean that seemed to go on forever named the furthermost point the same?
Probably a really stupid question but I thought that place was known as John o'Groats and Land's End is at the other end?

Much of the mystical fascination of Fisterra in Galicia is related to the sunset in the west, the fiery daily death of I'm not sure what ... a god, goddess, ball, disc, thing in the sky in any case (and yes, I know it's star and I also know how many years it still has to live, roughly ...). The ara solis, a temple, altar or something similar connected to sun worship, of Celtic, Roman, Phoenician or other origin, that many claim to locate there although there's no trace of it and nobody knows where it was if it existed at all. Land ends on every coastline anywhere so the questions is really: how good are the sunsets there and are they right in front of you, in the direction you walked? ;)
 
Oh Crikey! It was early in the morning when I wrote that - will edit it - 😂 😂 😂

Kathar1na - that is a good point, I wonder if all the 'ends of the earth' face the sunset??
 
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My favourite translation of the Camino greeting "Ultreya!" is "go beyond!" There is always further to go - reminds me of that stupendous book: "The Uttermost Part of the Earth" by Lucas Bridges. About Tierra del Fuego.
 
Each time I see this thread I see two scenes from the cultural imaginary that are quite a bit removed from Galicia: one is the scene from the movie The gods must be crazy where the protagonist, a bushman from the Kalahari desert whose tribe has no knowledge of the world beyond, goes on a long journey on foot to get rid of an empty Coke bottle that he throws eventually over a cliff "at the edge of the world".

The other one derives from an old pop song in German, written and performed in a romantic Italian style, about the fishermen of the Italian island of Capri that starts with the line: "When at Capri the red sun is sinking into the sea". Then I usually think, well, Roman soldiers must have seen the sun dramatically sinking into the sea before they arrived in Galicia ... ;).

Screenshot from the movie where the bushman arrives at the edge of the world:
edge-of-the-world.jpg


Many of the Youtube videos for the song are awful, acoustically and/or visually, plus they are mostly in German or Dutch and the one in English doesn't have this line so you may be glad to learn that I'm not providing a link. 🙃
 
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Muxia was a place for pagan worship where the main subject was the stones (pedra de abalar and pedra dos cadris).
@Pelegrin, who else to ask this than the forum's resident Galician :): I understand that pedra de abalar is a rocking stone. In fact, the Austrian pilgrim who visited Muxia/La Barca in 1654 mentions the rock and writes that "some can move it with only their thumb or another finger while others cannot manage this even with the greatest force and effort". He doesn't say whether he tried.

I understand that this stone was dislocated or broke in two during recent storms and it is now immobile but there have been efforts or studies by the Muxia Concello to see whether one can make it oscillate again? See Último intento para que la Pedra de Abalar de Muxía vuelva a oscilar.

If that's not a story, @pitztop, I don't know what is. ;)
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Same as for the OP the true end of Camino for me is coming to the ocean.

But if you start walking in Fisterra-Muxia or Muxia-Fisterra and then to Santiago you can get the Compostela. So actually it is a official Jacobean pilgrim route ;)
That is certainly true.

In that sense, one might think that when we walk from Santiago to Muxia to Finisterre (or Santiago to Finisterre to Muxia) we are walking the Camino backwards, like those who walk back from Santiago to SJPP. Unfortunately, the markers with their km counts tell a different story. Instead of counting down as one approaches Santiago, the numbers rise as one approaches Santiago and descend as one approaches the coast.

Ultimately, whatever the pre-Christian roots of this trek may be, or the Christian roots in pilgrimages to Muxia, I think the origin of the route as an official waymarked route and extension of the Camino are likely to be found in the Galician toursim authority and desire to spread the economic benefits of the Camino right to the coast.
 
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The origins, like the dreams, remain hidden, shrouded by the mists of the longue durée. Walking to Muxia and Finisterre this year, I learned that the walk to the ends of the earth was popularised in the 14th century by a Hungarian pilgrim. Naturally, this news was meat and drink to the two Hungarians who were my companions. we stayed in Hungarian-run albergues in both towns, the hospitality excellent both times.
 
The origins, like the dreams, remain hidden, shrouded by the mists of the longue durée. Walking to Muxia and Finisterre this year, I learned that the walk to the ends of the earth was popularised in the 14th century by a Hungarian pilgrim. Naturally, this news was meat and drink to the two Hungarians who were my companions. we stayed in Hungarian-run albergues in both towns, the hospitality excellent both times.

The oldest story that I know of is that my people (the Celts ) walked there to see the sun go down. It was believed that the land beyond the ocean which the setting sun illuminated was the land of eternal youth. Forgive my spelling but I think it was Tirn an Og. I love it no matter what! I went there for my 80th birthday last year and had the cruise around the bay and then we sat on the boat off the headland and watched the sun go down. Magic!

Yours aye,

The malingerer.
 
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There is something in the westward migrations of the Asiatic / Indo-European populations that stretches back to the dawn of our understanding of human evolution and migration that is way beyond the bounds of this forum to resolve. My lot probably started out somewhere around modern Afghanistan or possibly further East than that. The Celts roots are somewhere in central Europe or even the Asiatic plains. The migration was always westward. Now whether that was 'cos there was always another lot coming up behind, nicking the best bits and desperate for seafood: or it was 'cos all the evolving nations had an affection for spectacular sunsets: or even simply a demonstration of that renowned human trait of trying to bat against the spin (Colin Cowdrey) is probably beyond our understanding but comforting grounds for speculation.

Ys; Tir na Nog; The Summer Isles: The land of everlasting light... They are all there at the end of our journey. Some modern religions have moved heaven upwards, outwards or even inwards but for many and for many eons "heaven" has been Westward, following the light.

Hey, some of mine when they got to the fabled Americas - what did they get told? Go West young man ;)
 
in the 14th century by a Hungarian pilgrim
That must be Georgius Grissaphan, a Hungarian ex-military man to whom we owe one of the earliest accounts of a visit to Fisterra in 1355. He subsequently visited another liminal site, namely Lough Derg in Ireland.

The town of Fisterra maintains a website with a list of legends and visitors of the past but the English version must be machine translated and is next to incomprehensible. They also mention Erich Lassota von Steblau, an officer and diplomat from Poland who visited Fisterra in 1581. His diary is available online in an easy to read version. Like others, he also just describes in great detail a church that he calls Nuestra Señora di Finis terrae. In contrast to what many contemporary guidebooks say, it seems to me that medieval pilgrims were not aware of any ideas about eternal youth, death and/or resurrection or rebirth associated with the Atlantic Ocean and the sun in the west, or any associated rituals.

Erich Lassota also went to Muxia and he claims that he did try to move the big rock and could do so, with just one finger. BTW, @pitztop, you may be interested to know that the pilgrim from Vienna that I mentioned earlier returned in 1654 from Santiago via Switzerland and passed through Bremgarten, Zürich and Wädenswil. 😊
 
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Hola, I was given to understand that the reason for continuing to Fisterra/Finisterre was that in addition to being "the end of the world" it was also the place where the pilgrim obtained the scallop shell the proof that they had reached the Atlantic Ocean and thus completed their pilgrimage. (Happy to see corrections!!)
 
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Georgius Grissaphan, a Hungarian ex-military man to whom we owe one of the earliest accounts of a visit to Fisterra in 1355. He subsequently visited another liminal site, namely Lough Derg in Ireland.
And Grissaphan who was traumatised by his participation in wars in Italy writes this about his planned trip to Ireland: in finibus mundi, videlicet in Ybernia, que est ultima mundi provincia in parte occidentali, i.e. he wants to go Lough Derg which is "at the end of the world, that is to say in Ireland, which is the last province in the Western part of the world".

Somehow I'm glad that I don't live in the Middle Ages or even earlier and that I know that the world is round or a sort of ellipsoid and the universe endless and that the sun will set and rise every day without fail and I can even look up on the internet at what hour and minute ... 🙃.
 
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On our first visit to Finistere it was foggy, the church bell was ringing and as we passed the congregation came out, it was a funeral, they carried the coffin up to the end of the road, stood in silence for a while and then slowly carried the coffin back to the waiting hurst. I have no idea of what motivated this act, what ever it was it was deeply moving. I am reminded of it as it always seems to be cloud covered when I visit and the shafts of light breaking through to illuminate the silver waves are magical. Some how Finistere has become associated, right or wrong, with the end.

As we live at the end of the world, check it out NZs always about to fall of the map (if it is there at all) I kinda like visiting a place with similar associations.
 
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As we live at the end of the world, check it out NZs always about to fall of the map (if it is there at all) I kinda like visiting a place with similar associations.
Two opposite ends of the earth that are easy to find (especially for Kiwis) are the buildings at the top of the ski lift at Temple Basin ski area in Arthur's Pass National Park, NZ and the spot on the CF where you have walked around the Santiago airport and then take a right to put the runway to your back.
 

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