How many pilgrims walked Camino de Santiago in the Middle Ages, Medieval times? Was it really 500 000 per year?

[dick bird]

OK, a brief explanatory introduction. What follows is the thread as it first developed under the original title ¨500000 pilgrims expected in 1023¨ If you want to know the answer to the question posed by the new title, you could read through the whole thread - it is well-worth the effort because there is some fascinating stuff here as well as some impressive research. Or just skip to post 51#

Good, I´ve got your attention.

I am not talking about 2023, I am talking about 1023 (or 1223, or 1323)

Given current trends, it is likely that pilgrim numbers in Santiago will reach 500000, half a million, either this year or in 2024. This will be described as ´unprecedented´. However, this extraordinary number may be no more than a return to Medieval levels. The number of five hundred thousand pilgrims a year arriving in Santiago in the middle ages has been bandied about, but the last time I quoted it I was slapped down by a fellow forum member who had studied under that towering figure of Romanesque studies, Meyer Schapiro. Meyer Schapiro was an Art Historian with the emphasis on art, he never claimed to be an authority on general let alone pilgrim history. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the notion that in the middle ages, half a million people a year were pouring into what was then a much smaller city than it is now, so during lockdown I started to do some research.

It is an elusive figure, the best I found was this:
Guesses for medieval pilgrim numbers to Santiago vary from 0.5 to 2 million a year (Rahtz and Watts 1986: 52). Spread evenly over the year this works out at between 1,400 and 5,500 arriving at the shrine per day. Each of these pilgrims travelled both there and back. These are phenomenal numbers of people. (Some Approaches to the Archaeology of Christian Pilgrimage Author(s): J. Stopford Source: World Archaeology , Jun., 1994, Vol. 26, No. 1, Archaeology of Pilgrimage (Jun., 1994), pp. 57-72).

Unfortunately, I couldn´t get hold of the cited original, Rahtz and Watts. The article is worth reading and mentions other reports and possibly contemporary estimates of hundred of thousands of pilgrims at places like Aachen and Wilsnack.

The most interesting research, though, was by a certain Ben Nilson of the University of British Columbia, whose speciality is medieval English pilgrimage. He was attempting to verify claims by Canterbury cathedral to be receiving hundreds of thousands of pilgrims a year to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. His findings were published in ´Pilgrimage Explored´ (1999, York Medieval Press). He was able to examine the accounts of Lincoln Cathedral, which have not only survived in remarkably good condition, but were carefully itemised. This reveal that in 1325, the sum of 28 pounds, 3 shillings and tenpence was deposited on the altar of the shrine of St. Hugh of Lincoln, mainly in the form of penny coins, with a few farthings. On the assumption that these were token offerings, and each pilgrim would leave one coin, Nilson inferred that in the course of one year, St. Hugh was receiving around 7000 visitors a year. Given that St. Hugh was an obscure saint even in 1325, he concluded that Canterbury´s claim was at least plausible.

If Canterbury was receiving hundreds of thousands, we can be pretty confident that Santiago was receiving at least as many, if not a lot more.

It makes you think, doesn´t it?

 

[Pafayac]

The number of medieval pilgrims arriving in Santiago in the Middle Ages is difficult to estimate, but is certainly not as huge as hundreds of thousands.

"We often read that we counted in Compostela "...up to 500,000 pilgrims per year..." or "...half a million each year...

A site is even more urgent by writing "the peak of the pilgrimage was in the Middle Ages, with nearly one million penitents walking on the way each year"(7).

But these figures, precisely incredible, are false and do not come from any reliable source. Historical research does not support these claims; far from it, it tends to show that the number of people arriving in Compostela in the Middle Ages was not very important(8).

Simple reflection should already force us to admit that this number of pilgrims is materially impossible.

500,000 people arriving in Compostela over a year represent (if we admit that the winter months were greatly avoided) an average daily arrival over 9 months of nearly 1,818 pilgrims, necessarily with significant fluctuations according to the seasons and with peaks (let's say 3,000) during the summer months (in 2018 the number of pilgrims in August was 5 times higher than in March). As at the time pilgrims arrived in Compostela and generally left by the same path, the rising cohort of 1,000 to 3,000 people crossed the descending cohort. Compostela but also every important stage of the path had to welcome, host, feed a crowd of 2,000 to 6,000 people on a daily basis!

In the Middle Ages, the towns and villages of Spain were far from having the current development. Thus, at the end of the 16th century, no city in northern Spain reached a population of 5,000 people(9). How could they have achieved this welcome that even today Sarria with its 20 inns and 720 beds could not succeed? What then about the possibilities of Roncesvalles (today ± 200 beds) or Rabanal (today ± 208 beds)..."

A propos des nombres, vrais et faux, des pèlerin.e.s arrivant à Compostelle

A propos des nombres, vrais et faux, des pèlerin.e.s arrivant à Compostelle. Les nombres cités pour le Moyen-âge sont souvent jantaisistes.

verscompostelle.be

 

[Bradypus]

Earlier this year I stumbled across a claim that at its peak the monastery in Roncesvalles was feeding between 25,000 and 30,000 pilgrims each year. Based on the community's accounts. Of course that was only one house on one of the many possible routes.

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/roncesvalles-cross.79972/post-1127793

 

[Bradypus]

Given current trends, it is likely that pilgrim numbers in Santiago will reach 500000, half a million, either this year or in 2024.

This year seemed to start with a large increase in numbers compared to last year. 30% and more for the first few months. But that initial rush seems to have tailed off and today a local news site is reporting that July numbers are actually down on last year. The Compostela total for the year to date is now about 9% above the same period last year. That is extraordinary enough given last year was a Holy Year and had the highest total recorded since the Camino's 20th century revival. But unless there is another significant bump in numbers in the autumn reaching the half-million this year now looks less likely.

 

[dick bird]

Earlier this year I stumbled across a claim that at its peak the monastery in Roncesvalles was feeding between 25,000 and 30,000 pilgrims each year. Based on the community's accounts. Of course that was only one house on one of the many possible routes.

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/roncesvalles-cross.79972/post-1127793

Is this publication available online? I´d love to add it to my collection of Camino related readings.

 

[Bradypus]

Is this publication available online? I´d love to add it to my collection of Camino related readings.

Historical Sketches of Old Charing. The Hospital and Chapel of Saint Mary Roncevall. Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England, and the monuments erected in her memory, by James Galloway—A Project Gutenberg eBook

 

[dick bird]

The number of medieval pilgrims arriving in Santiago in the Middle Ages is difficult to estimate, but is certainly not as huge as hundreds of thousands.

I know what you mean. Let´s face it, even now with all the sophisticated IT data collection systems at our disposal, we really have no clear idea of how many visitors arrive in Santiago every year even now. However, it is one thing to say that some past event is impossible or improbable, it is another thing to say what actually happened. In other words, some historians have produced evidence, which may, of course be reliable but may equally well be unreliable, suggesting hundreds of thousands of pilgrims arriving in Santiago. If other historians want to dispute this, they need to back up their own claim with reliable research that suggests a more reliable or realistic figure. Simply dismissing someone else´s claim as implausible is not, in academic circles, good enough. To be honest, I find the figure of 500000 pilgrims a year absolutely astonishing and hard to accept, but I wouldn´t dismiss it out of hand, especially when there are real historians discussing it as a possibility.

 

[Pafayac]

A fact should be taken into account: there are various interests around the Camino. These interests have sometimes lead to mistakes concerning the Camino. Namely, there were many local pilgrimages in the Middle Ages. Most of them as disappeared now, but we can find their memory thanks to toponymy. For instance, in France "romieu" or "roumieu" was the ancient term to designate pilgrim. Therefore "pont des romieux" should be understood as "bridge of the pilgrims". However most of these pilgrims were not Santiago pilgrims, but rather local pilgrims.
Another mistake concerns Le Puy en Velay which is now one of the main starting points in France. You will find there many things related to pilgrims, like "Pilgrims hospital". But these pilgrims were not those who go to Santiago, but those who reaches Le Puy, which was itself a target of a famous pilgrimage.
For those who can read french, there is an interesting document here:

https://www.institut-irj.fr/attachment/2135595/

It is about the UNESCO World heritage list, and compares for many monuments in France, the sayings in 1998, in order to have these monuments considered as parts of Santiago pilgrimage, and the sayings in 2018, twenty years later.
"A first general observation is necessary: any reference to Compostela, Saint James or the pilgrimage disappears from about a third of the 53 descriptions that had it."
Most of local pilgrimages have been absorbed by Santiago pilgrimage, because these local pilgrimages have no other interest than historical today, whereas Santiago pilgrimage brings money...

I think it is the same for pilgrims: in the Middle Age, many places were in competition with Santiago: not only Jerusalem or Rome, but also local sanctuaries. Therefore any estimations on number of pilgrims should take these facts into account, and one should not think all pilgrims in Europe went to Santiago.

 

[Murk]

To be honest, I find the figure of 500000 pilgrims a year absolutely astonishing and hard to accept, but I wouldn´t dismiss it out of hand, especially when there are real historians discussing it as a possibility.

I also want to give actual historians (which I'm not) the benefit of the doubt.

But... By somewhat more certain estimates, the entire population of all of Europe in the late(r) middle ages is between 50 and 80 million people.
500,000 pilgrims per year would then mean that more than half of all Europeans went to Santiago at least once in their lives (assuming a lifespan of some 50-70 years).

Half of all Europeans! That's a lot, especially considering a large part of Europe wouldn't have been Christian and/or venerating st. James.
Surely some of this is off-set by people (locals?) making the pilgrimage more than once, but still... I think if the vast majority of people went on this specific pilgrimage at least once in their lives, it would have a much more prominent role in history.

Compare to the Hajj to Mecca, which is one of the main pillars of Islam and had societal (and religious) priority over any other Islamic pilgrimage -- and didn't even come close to 500,000 pilgrims every year in Medieval times.

 

[David Tallan]

I also want to give actual historians (which I'm not) the benefit of the doubt.

But... By somewhat more certain estimates, the entire population of all of Europe in the late(r) middle ages is between 50 and 80 million people.
500,000 pilgrims per year would then mean that more than half of all Europeans went to Santiago at least once in their lives (assuming a lifespan of some 50-70 years).

Half of all Europeans! That's a lot, especially considering a large part of Europe wouldn't have been Christian and/or venerating st. James.
Surely some of this is off-set by people (locals?) making the pilgrimage more than once, but still... I think if the vast majority of people went on this specific pilgrimage at least once in their lives, it would have a much more prominent role in history.

Compare to the Hajj to Mecca, which is one of the main pillars of Islam and had societal (and religious) priority over any other Islamic pilgrimage -- and didn't even come close to 500,000 pilgrims every year in Medieval times.

I generally agree with your point, but I'm wondering, in the late(r) middle ages, where the "large part of Europe" you are referring to was located, when you wrote:

especially considering a large part of Europe wouldn't have been Christian and/or venerating st. James.

 

[dick bird]

500,000 pilgrims per year would then mean that more than half of all Europeans went to Santiago at least once in their lives (assuming a lifespan of some 50-70 years).

Another of looking at it is by saying that at any given time, up to 1% of the population of Europe were on pilgrimage to Santiago. 1% on a pilgrimage somewhere, probably local, is actually quite likely, but to Santiago? I´ve attached a pdf of the article I quoted from so you can all have a look.

One of the things I came to realise during my lockdown reading was how wide of the mark we are in our idea of the middle ages. Far from being a rabble of scrofulous, half starved peasants lorded over by galloping knights in armour occasionally sallying forth from their castles waved off by fair damsels in silken wimples, they were technically highly accomplished (they´d invented clocks by 1300) and able to mobilise massive human and material resources. They also got around a lot, not just as pilgrims, but as merchants, artisans or simply itinerant workers.

 

[Arctic_Alex]

EDIT: I should have read thee whole thread. There was already a similar estimate as mine further up .

I am not a historian, but I like playing with numbers and statistics ... that used to be part of my job. It is always interesting to use that to check plausibility of claims:

To get to one million pilgrims arriving in Santiago in the year 1400 AD, and assuming an average life expectancy of 40 years around 1400 AD, one would need a total of 40 million people living in Europe that at once in their lifetime go on the pilgrimage – assuming that is was mostly a once in a lifetime thing.

Comparing that number with the population of Europe around 1400 AD which is generally estimated to be 80 million leads to the conclusion that half of the population of Europe must embark on a pilgrimage to Santiago once during their lifetime to explain 1 million pilgrims per year arriving in Santiago.

Highly unlikely I would say. This includes men and women alike and also people who physically never could go on a pilgrimage for health and disability reasons.

Of course this is a very rough estimate. My research regarding population numbers and average life expectancy was just a quick and dirty google. To do it properly I would need the detailed demographics from those days, including infant mortality etc.. But all that would not change it very drastically and it would not change my opinion that 1 million pilgrims per year is at least one order of magnitude away from reality. 50,000 seems way more realistic.

 

[JohnLloyd]

That's a fascinating piece of research - thanks for your time in collating it.

The ease of international travel now may make it seem incredible that so many people could traverse nations to walk the Camino in medieval times.

I've always been amazed by stories of travellers from Iceland making it to mainland Europe, for example, braving the wide expanses of the Atlantic.

But it seems hard to believe that hundreds of thousands of people would be able to afford the costs of pilgrimage in earlier times - how would they manage it?

 

[Murk]

I generally agree with your point, but I'm wondering, in the late(r) middle ages, where the "large part of Europe" you are referring to was located, when you wrote:

I originally wrote "depending on the century" but scrapped that for brevity. In the case of 1023: parts of Scandinavia, Finland, Norhwest Russia, most of the Baltics, but also parts of coastal Germany and Poland. Admittedly, the population in those parts might have been negligible compared to the South & West.

And while the Eastern Orthodox churches (and those in the Caucasus - I'm unsure whether those count for historical estimates of European population) are fond of St James, I think they did not generally partake in the pilgrimage to Santiago? But please correct me if I'm wrong!
The Orthodox populations in Greece and Rus would have been a significant part of the European population.

 

[dick bird]

I generally agree with your point, but I'm wondering, in the late(r) middle ages, where the "large part of Europe" you are referring to was located, when you wrote:

Good point. Parts of Spain and Sicily were under Muslim rule, but even so, many of the inhabitants had been Christian since Roman times and the Visigoths had mainly converted by mid 6th century. Charlemagne had converted the Saxons of east Europe by the end of the ninth century, even Scandinavia had mostly converted by 1000. The cult of Santiago seems to have been widespread. I grew up in an English village that had a church dedicated to St. James built before 1100.

 

[Kathar1na]

Earlier this year I stumbled across a claim that at its peak the monastery in Roncesvalles was feeding between 25,000 and 30,000 pilgrims each year. Based on the community's accounts. Of course that was only one house on one of the many possible routes.

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/roncesvalles-cross.79972/post-1127793

I decided that I won't participate in the discussion about the 500,000 but your comment proved irresistible. Note: This is not about the 500,000. It's just such a great example for the quotes of quotes of quotes.

So "at its peak the monastery in Roncesvalles was feeding between 25,000 and 30,000 pilgrims each year".

You quoted your own earlier forum post but what was 25,000-30,000 rations in the earlier thread is now 25,000-30,000 pilgrims in this thread.

Let's look further back. The quote comes from an author named James Galloway who wrote about one of the erstwhile London properties owned by Roncesvalles. He indicates as source: Reseña histórica de la Real Casa de nuestra Señora de Roncesvalles; por D. Hilario Sarasa, Pamplona, 1878; a review was published by Wentworth Webster in the "Academy", 1879, xvi, p. 135-6.

OK, so Galloway did not quote directly from Sarasa, he quoted from a review of Sarasa's book. It took me a while to figure out what the "Academy" was. Indeed Galloway lifted the quote from a review of Sarasa's 1878 book and this 19th century reviewer doesn't provide a page number to the reader.

But I found Sarasa's paragraph eventually in his 1878 book of 229 pages without index or text search option, and we are now reading text in Spanish instead of English. I managed to locate the origin of the quote on page 103 in the chapter about How Hospitality was provided in Roncesvalles.

What is the context? The context starts with [translated]: While in the sixteenth century it no longer had the rich possessions and income from abroad ... [and now summarising] Roncesvalles continued to provide hospitality: to pilgrims who went to visit the Holy Sites in Rome, and to pilgrims from Germany, Italy and France on pilgrimage to the Tomb of St James. They also welcomed the (Spanish) soldiers who (planted) our flags in Italy and Flanders. The sick from the (Spanish) frontier army were helped to the point of giving complete assistance in the year 1630 to more than one thousand sick soldiers without costing our King anything. Also welcomed and assisted were poor travellers passing through and beggars and the shameful were delicately rescued (Google Translate, not sure who they were, perhaps unmarried woman who were pregnant or had a child out of wedlock). When the Regent of the Bearne region (not far from Roncesvalles) tried to introduce Lutheranism with great force, Roncesvalles was the albergue for those who had fled the fury of their implacable enemies. Roncesvalles welcomed them and even sent scouts into the mountains to find those who were in hiding.

And it is in this context that we read that every year 25,000 to 30,000 rations were distributed; that ration means that what was given to each person [and now the author mentions the bread, wine, soup, meat, chicken soup for the sick and so on]. And at the end of the chapter: This is how hospitality was practiced in Roncesvalles even after the majority of their wealthy income had disappeared.

So, contrary to what we initially thought, the number does not relate to the 12th-14th century and it does not relate only to pilgrims and there is no indication whatsoever how many of these pilgrims were pilgrims on their way from or to Santiago. Needles to say: Roncesvalles was a pilgrimage destination in its own right. Contrary to how it is often presented, the pilgrimage sites on any road that could be construed as a road leading to Santiago were not mere stations for pilgrims to pass through. Local and regional people went there on pilgrimage and then they went back to their homes again.

My point is: This is how quotes from quotes from quotes work. The majority of authors work like this, it is just the way it is, they cannot trace back every quote to its origin and to a medieval document (if such a document even exists). Very few people are experts in the field of the very narrow topic of the number of medieval pilgrims who went to Santiago and back.

 

[Pilgrim9]

This is an interesting thread.

Posts #1 & #2 both quote documents having words to the effect that medieval pilgrims, after having arrived in Santiago de Compostela, eventually returned to their place of origin.

I am most certainly not an expert on the history of this or any other pilgrimage route, but when I envision the costs, difficulties, and risks probably inherent in undertaking a long medieval foot pilgrimage, I find it hard to believe that substantial percentages of such pilgrims would have been able to, or even have wanted to, return to their place of origin.

My mental model is that many pilgrims from far way (I guess I mean "from outside of the Iberian Peninsula") who survived the weather and en-route injuries and illnesses and the bad food and the mountain passes and the trail bandits and who had finally arrived in Santiago, would be so worn out and broke upon arrival that the very last thing they would want to do is walk all the way back again. What would have been the point? They would have accomplished whatever worldly life goals they had set for themselves before deciding to shift to spiritual goals such as pilgrimage. They would have said their final goodbyes to their loved ones before setting off. Most of them would not have had "a job" to return to. Whatever knowledge, skills, and abilities that they had possessed at their points of origin, that had helped them earn a living, they would still have possessed in Santiago, so they would have been able to earn some sort of living, especially if the population of like-minded folks was increasing.

I have a hunch that upon arrival a lot of them would have had two main thoughts: Firstly, "Thank you, God, for letting me make, and survive, this journey", and then, sometime later, "I think that I am going to just stay here. This is where I live now."

Obviously there would have been exceptions.

In the back of my mind is the idea that during the period of Moorish rule over most of the Iberian Peninsula, there always remained a narrow, sparsely-populated Christian-dominated strip of land north of the north-coast range of mountains that the Moors were never able to conquer, and that one of the purposes of establishing Santiago as a pilgrimage destination was to increase the population of Christians in the area, with a view to eventually pushing out the Moors.

Local authorities along that northern strip would have seen many of the incoming pilgrims as desirable immigrants because of their maturity and dedication (as demonstrated by the pilgrimage itself) to a set of values that was compatible to that of the local Christian population. It would have made sense to encourage them to stay. And the arriving pilgrims would have found themselves surrounded by folks having shared experiences and attitudes.

This is just my mental model.

 

[whiteblaze]

Such a fascinating history lesson for the lands we are traveling through. I may end up being the slowest Camino Walker on record because now I want to read and see everything. Can you comment on the mindset of a pilgrim who did this journey? Why did they go? I know they went to see the relics of Saint James.

 

[Kathar1na]

the best I found was this:
Guesses for medieval pilgrim numbers to Santiago vary from 0.5 to 2 million a year (Rahtz and Watts 1986: 52). Spread evenly over the year this works out at between 1,400 and 5,500 arriving at the shrine per day. Each of these pilgrims travelled both there and back. These are phenomenal numbers of people. (Some Approaches to the Archaeology of Christian Pilgrimage Author(s): J. Stopford Source: World Archaeology , Jun., 1994, Vol. 26, No. 1, Archaeology of Pilgrimage (Jun., 1994), pp. 57-72). Unfortunately, I couldn´t get hold of the cited original, Rahtz and Watts.

If I can help out? See below for a link to the quote for this quote. It leads to good old Turner which I did not look up.

For Rahtz and Watts, look at: CBA Research Report, No 60, The Anglo-Saxon Church, Papers on the history, architecture, and archaeology in honour of Dr H M Tayler, 1986, page 51 - The archeologist on the Road to Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela, Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts.

On page 52 one can read:

Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela attract many pilgrims, the former probably exceeding three million a year (five million in 1958), the latter currently rather less, though a figure of 0.5-2 million is guessed at for medieval times, and three million passed through the cathedral shrine in 1971, when the day of St James fell on a Sunday, and the year became a holy one for all Spain (Turner & Turner 1978, 207, 230).​

Source: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.u...t=arch-281-1/dissemination/pdf/cba_rr_060.pdf​

​

Just for historical context : Dr Denise Péricard-Méa went on a pilgrimage on horseback from Bourges in France to Santiago in 1982 which inspired her to enrol for history studies at the Sorbonne. She is not an archaeologist like Rahtz and Wolf and she is not a cultural anthropologist like the Turners. Her expertise is the history of the cult of Saint James in the Middle Ages. She published the first results of her research about Compostelle et cultes de saint Jacques au Moyen Age in 1996 and she is one of the few specialists in this subject matter. From memory, I think it was the lack of proper research about the medieval Santiago pilgrims that prompted her interest and curiosity. Others have already pointed to https://www.institut-irj.fr which is the website of a research institute that she has co-founded. Plenty of excellent relevant information. In French.

 

[Kathar1na]

Why did they go?

In a nutshell: They were preoccupied with what might happen to them in the afterlife.

 

[Kathar1na]

I've finished reading through the Rahtz and Watts article. It finishes with this paragraph:

This offering to Harold Taylor is neither learned nor profound. A month spent in travel is no substitute for the research needed to put Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela in a proper historical, archaeological, or ethnographic perspective.​

​

Given that Jennifer Stopford quotes Rahtz&Watts who quote Turner, does anyone have the Turner book and can look up what they write on pages 207 and 230 about the 500,000? The book's reference is given as Turner, V. & Turner, E., 1978, Image of pilgrimage in Christian culture.

Just curious.

 

[Bradypus]

Given that Jennifer Stopford quotes Rahtz&Watts who quote Turner, does anyone have the Turner book and can look up what they write on pages 207 and 230 about the 500,000? The book's reference is given as Turner, V. & Turner, E., 1978, Image of pilgrimage in Christian culture.

Page 207-8 on numbers in Santiago


Page 230 on numbers in Lourdes

 

[Tincatinker]

Local authorities along that northern strip would have seen many of the incoming pilgrims as desirable immigrants because of their maturity and dedication (as demonstrated by the pilgrimage itself) to a set of values that was compatible to that of the local Christian population. It would have made sense to encourage them to stay. And the arriving pilgrims would have found themselves surrounded by folks having shared experiences and attitudes.

This is just my mental model.

That is at least illustrated by the various Villafranca scattered across Northern Spain.

The population of Galicia suggests that most pilgrims did go home again, or it would have been the most populous province in Iberia. There's evidence recently from the excavations associated with the building of a new high-speed railway in the UK where archeologists have uncovered more than a few ex-pilgrims buried with their shells that supports the idea that there and back again was the pilgrimage.

 

[Kirkie]

This is an interesting thread.

Posts #1 & #2 both quote documents having words to the effect that medieval pilgrims, after having arrived in Santiago de Compostela, eventually returned to their place of origin.

I am most certainly not an expert on the history of this or any other pilgrimage route, but when I envision the costs, difficulties, and risks probably inherent in undertaking a long medieval foot pilgrimage, I find it hard to believe that substantial percentages of such pilgrims would have been able to, or even have wanted to, return to their place of origin.

My mental model is that many pilgrims from far way (I guess I mean "from outside of the Iberian Peninsula") who survived the weather and en-route injuries and illnesses and the bad food and the mountain passes and the trail bandits and who had finally arrived in Santiago, would be so worn out and broke upon arrival that the very last thing they would want to do is walk all the way back again. What would have been the point? They would have accomplished whatever worldly life goals they had set for themselves before deciding to shift to spiritual goals such as pilgrimage. They would have said their final goodbyes to their loved ones before setting off. Most of them would not have had "a job" to return to. Whatever knowledge, skills, and abilities that they had possessed at their points of origin, that had helped them earn a living, they would still have possessed in Santiago, so they would have been able to earn some sort of living, especially if the population of like-minded folks was increasing.

I have a hunch that upon arrival a lot of them would have had two main thoughts: Firstly, "Thank you, God, for letting me make, and survive, this journey", and then, sometime later, "I think that I am going to just stay here. This is where I live now."

Obviously there would have been exceptions.

In the back of my mind is the idea that during the period of Moorish rule over most of the Iberian Peninsula, there always remained a narrow, sparsely-populated Christian-dominated strip of land north of the north-coast range of mountains that the Moors were never able to conquer, and that one of the purposes of establishing Santiago as a pilgrimage destination was to increase the population of Christians in the area, with a view to eventually pushing out the Moors.

Local authorities along that northern strip would have seen many of the incoming pilgrims as desirable immigrants because of their maturity and dedication (as demonstrated by the pilgrimage itself) to a set of values that was compatible to that of the local Christian population. It would have made sense to encourage them to stay. And the arriving pilgrims would have found themselves surrounded by folks having shared experiences and attitudes.

This is just my mental model.

Mental models perplex me. Most categories and boxes do!
Thank you for sharing yours. This is an interesting thread and I appreciate your contribution. Far from being a scholar in these matters am I.
However, my guess is that some of the people you are thinking of, and let's be honest, they were powerful people, according to the very little knowledge I have (some of it provided by a very fine author, Bernadette O'Donoghue. link here to a review of her very fine book...) - some of these people did indeed turn around and make their way home. Those were pilgrim people.
(I hereby state: this is no reflection on the current argument/conversation/ question around pilgrim or tourist. Nothing whatsoever, and I will not be drawn into any justification because that is not my forte! )
https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2018/medieval-irish-pilgrims-to-santiago-de-compostela/reviews

 

[Pelegrin]

That is at least illustrated by the various Villafranca scattered across Northern Spain.

The population of Galicia suggests that most pilgrims did go home again, or it would have been the most populous province in Iberia. There's evidence recently from the excavations associated with the building of a new high-speed railway in the UK where archeologists have uncovered more than a few ex-pilgrims buried with their shells that supports the idea that there and back again was the pilgrimage.

There are several small villages in Galicia with the name " Francos" included. So some of them didn' t return.

 

[Blister Bill]

Great thread. Another approach.Not looking at the historical sources but rather one practical one. We are told the botafumeiro's origins was to deodorise the cathedral where the poorest pilgrims (majority?)slept in the upper reaches. Appreciating the various stages of construction etc but it would seem incredible to me that it could be measured in hundreds at a time given they presumably paused prior to the homeward leg?

 

[Saint Mike II]

Hola and greetings to all pilgrims, whether on actual pilgrimage or just studying. What an incredible OP.
I have not conducted any thing like the research listed above. Maybe for another day. I can however recall that when I visited Canterbury Cathedral, now yes 50 years ago our guide did quote figures of upwards of 50,000 pilgrims visiting the shrine of St Thomas a Becket. That number was probably in the mid 1300’s, before the Black Death plague. The numbers may resumed after the plague to give thanks for a pilgrims surviving. Of course after Henry VIII abolished the monasteries and of course stole their lands and money the numbers did drop off quite dramatically. Could the Canterbury numbers be extrapolated to give a Santiago number of 500,000 I cannot say, and I doubt we will ever know. But it is certainly a topic of much debate or speculation. Buen Camino.

 

[MichaelB10398]

It seems I read from Dr. King's work in 1920, that the majority of the pilgrims were criminals that were either given the opportunity to walk to Santiago and returning with proof and be pardoned or took the opportunity to walk seeking forgiveness. The wealthy went for reasons of safety of their souls. Pilgrimage did not have pilgrims that were not committed to spiritual reasons - that was paramount for the entire walk; it was the raison d'être.
It was a far more spiritual time than now where secularism has conquered most western societies. There are different gods for this epoch than in yesteryear.

 

[dick bird]

Very few people are experts in the field of the very narrow topic of the number of medieval pilgrims who went to Santiago and back.

A very important point. Even then, experts have to interpret what little empirical data they have. For example, the Roncesvalles rations: was a ration a meal? And if so, how many meals were given to each recipient? In other words, someone staying overnight might receive both breakfast and dinner, thus cutting the number of supposed recipients in half. Ben Nilson is without doubt an expert, yet his data about offerings to St. Hugh can´t tell us if the people who left them had travelled hundreds or dozen of miles across country or whether they were local people asking for the saint´s intercession. But thank you, Kathar1na, for the extraordinary research you have done.

It seems I read from Dr. King's work in 1920, that the majority of the pilgrims were criminals that were either given the opportunity to walk to Santiago

´Majority´ is unlikely. The Middle Ages were lawless at times, but that suggests an extraordinary crime wave and a hyperactive judiciary. Many pilgrims were also seeking or giving thanks for a cure believing that relics held supernatural power.

 

[Mr BWE]

I also want to give actual historians (which I'm not) the benefit of the doubt.

But... By somewhat more certain estimates, the entire population of all of Europe in the late(r) middle ages is between 50 and 80 million people.
500,000 pilgrims per year would then mean that more than half of all Europeans went to Santiago at least once in their lives (assuming a lifespan of some 50-70 years).

Half of all Europeans! That's a lot, especially considering a large part of Europe wouldn't have been Christian and/or venerating st. James.
Surely some of this is off-set by people (locals?) making the pilgrimage more than once, but still... I think if the vast majority of people went on this specific pilgrimage at least once in their lives, it would have a much more prominent role in history.

Compare to the Hajj to Mecca, which is one of the main pillars of Islam and had societal (and religious) priority over any other Islamic pilgrimage -- and didn't even come close to 500,000 pilgrims every year in Medieval times.

I wouldn't bet on the average lifespan of people in those days being as high as 50 - 70 ...

 

[Colleen Kathma]

Good, I´ve got your attention.

I am not talking about 2023, I am talking about 1023 (or 1223, or 1323)

Given current trends, it is likely that pilgrim numbers in Santiago will reach 500000, half a million, either this year or in 2024. This will be described as ´unprecedented´. However, this extraordinary number may be no more than a return to Medieval levels. The number of five hundred thousand pilgrims a year arriving in Santiago in the middle ages has been bandied about, but the last time I quoted it I was slapped down by a fellow forum member who had studied under that towering figure of Romanesque studies, Meyer Schapiro. Meyer Schapiro was an Art Historian with the emphasis on art, he never claimed to be an authority on general let alone pilgrim history. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the notion that in the middle ages, half a million people a year were pouring into what was then a much smaller city than it is now, so during lockdown I started to do some research.

It is an elusive figure, the best I found was this:
Guesses for medieval pilgrim numbers to Santiago vary from 0.5 to 2 million a year (Rahtz and Watts 1986: 52). Spread evenly over the year this works out at between 1,400 and 5,500 arriving at the shrine per day. Each of these pilgrims travelled both there and back. These are phenomenal numbers of people. (Some Approaches to the Archaeology of Christian Pilgrimage Author(s): J. Stopford Source: World Archaeology , Jun., 1994, Vol. 26, No. 1, Archaeology of Pilgrimage (Jun., 1994), pp. 57-72).

Unfortunately, I couldn´t get hold of the cited original, Rahtz and Watts. The article is worth reading and mentions other reports and possibly contemporary estimates of hundred of thousands of pilgrims at places like Aachen and Wilsnack.

The most interesting research, though, was by a certain Ben Nilson of the University of British Columbia, whose speciality is medieval English pilgrimage. He was attempting to verify claims by Canterbury cathedral to be receiving hundreds of thousands of pilgrims a year to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. His findings were published in ´Pilgrimage Explored´ (1999, York Medieval Press). He was able to examine the accounts of Lincoln Cathedral, which have not only survived in remarkably good condition, but were carefully itemised. This reveal that in 1325, the sum of 28 pounds, 3 shillings and tenpence was deposited on the altar of the shrine of St. Hugh of Lincoln, mainly in the form of penny coins, with a few farthings. On the assumption that these were token offerings, and each pilgrim would leave one coin, Nilson inferred that in the course of one year, St. Hugh was receiving around 7000 visitors a year. Given that St. Hugh was an obscure saint even in 1325, he concluded that Canterbury´s claim was at least plausible.

If Canterbury was receiving hundreds of thousands, we can be pretty confident that Santiago was receiving at least as many, if not a lot more.

It makes you think, doesn´t it?

Thank you for the information. My first thoughts on reading your post is the sincerehope these Peregrinos leave only their foot prints on the Sacred ways.

 

[Perambulating Griffin]

I've finished reading through the Rahtz and Watts article. It finishes with this paragraph:

This offering to Harold Taylor is neither learned nor profound. A month spent in travel is no substitute for the research needed to put Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela in a proper historical, archaeological, or ethnographic perspective.​

​

Given that Jennifer Stopford quotes Rahtz&Watts who quote Turner, does anyone have the Turner book and can look up what they write on pages 207 and 230 about the 500,000? The book's reference is given as Turner, V. & Turner, E., 1978, Image of pilgrimage in Christian culture.

Just curious.

I can… just need a few days to get back to my office and have a look. Please remind me if I’ve not done it by this time next week!

 

[Perambulating Griffin]

I wouldn't bet on the average lifespan of people in those days being as high as 50 - 70 ...

You’d be surprised! Although women often died as a result of having children too early (when it is more dangerous to an immature anatomy) or repeatedly, thus having dangerous complications prior to age 35…. And men died frequently enough from injuries sustained in labour or in war, very elderly people are common enough a concern to appear in the texts we have to survive from antiquity (Galen, Cicero, Plato, Aristotle, the Hippocratic texts and what remains of the Epicureans, just to name a few…) all the way forward to the contemporary world of gerontology. The preoccupation with the health and needs of the elderly appears often enough for us to now that being quite old was common enough to be unremarkable.
And, of course our various religious texts all speak at length about the needs of the elderly.

 

[Philtration]

Another of looking at it is by saying that at any given time, up to 1% of the population of Europe were on pilgrimage to Santiago. 1% on a pilgrimage somewhere, probably local, is actually quite likely, but to Santiago? I´ve attached a pdf of the article I quoted from so you can all have a look.

One of the things I came to realise during my lockdown reading was how wide of the mark we are in our idea of the middle ages. Far from being a rabble of scrofulous, half starved peasants lorded over by galloping knights in armour occasionally sallying forth from their castles waved off by fair damsels in silken wimples, they were technically highly accomplished (they´d invented clocks by 1300) and able to mobilise massive human and material resources. They also got around a lot, not just as pilgrims, but as merchants, artisans or simply itinerant workers.

Does anyone have an image of what a "silken wimple" looks like? Love the phrase!

 

[Kathar1na]

Page 207-8 on numbers in Santiago
View attachment 153897
Page 230 on numbers in Lourdes
View attachment 153898

Thank you so much for copying these passages from Turner's 1978 book! I had not expected to see this in the thread and I had already tentatively toyed with the idea of travelling to the nearest university library that has a copy - an idea I had toyed with numerous times in the past when a document or book was not accessible online or too expensive to read but it always remained an idea and I never went anywhere where I could actually hold a book or document in my hands.

So we started from a footnote that leads to another footnote that leads to a third source but that source speaks only about pilgrim numbers to Lourdes and Santiago in our time and makes no mention of any 500,000 in the Middle Ages, and we are none the wiser.

I've frequently come across the supposedly 500,000 annual pilgrims to Santiago in medieval times and it is no wonder that people take it as a known fact when it isn't. It is usually mentioned in a context where a general background of pilgrimage is given, even in pilgrimage related studies and of course in books for the general public. It's often a side-show so to speak, merely a general introduction, and not the result of own research which is the actual topic of a study or a research related article.

As far as I can tell, research of actual registers of medieval pilgrims (very rare) and of post-medieval pilgrims (more common) started only in the second half of the 20th century. Also as far as I can tell, research into the medieval history of the pilgrimage to Santiago was started and was undertaken mainly by Galician scholars in the 19th century. They did not have the tools and the access to medieval documents that researchers can make use of in our time. Their work, their ideas, even their speculation, do still get quoted, directly or through a second or third source, and it generally feeds into the narratives of popular books, of guidebooks, of talks given by guides, especially what sounds interesting, i.e. amusing or astonishing, to the reader or listener. Hence ... <small sigh>.

 

[Saint Mike II]

I wouldn't bet on the average lifespan of people in those days being as high as 50 - 70 ...

I agree, 40/50 was considered old.

 

[Kathar1na]

For Rahtz and Watts, look at: CBA Research Report, No 60, The Anglo-Saxon Church, Papers on the history, architecture, and archaeology in honour of Dr H M Tayler, 1986, page 51 - The archeologist on the Road to Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela, Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts.
Source: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.u...t=arch-281-1/dissemination/pdf/cba_rr_060.pdf

Those who read the Rahtz&Watts article will have noticed that it contains some other nice whoppers . On page 72, one can read:

In the crossing are the ropes and ceiling pulleys of the famous botafumeiro. This is a giant censer, over 1 m high, which must hold several kilos of incense.​

​

This must be another popular story: For those who missed it, we had a thread about the supposedly several kilos of substances in the Botafumeiro some time ago. Spoiler alert: There's neither several kilos of incense nor several kilos of charcoal in the Botafumeiro.

One can of course always argue that there could be several kilos of incense in it. But there aren't.

 

[dick bird]

I've frequently come across the supposedly 500,000 annual pilgrims to Santiago in medieval times and it is no wonder that people take it as a known fact when it isn't.

I´d love to know exactly where that number originated from, but as you say, it is simply a number that is repeated until it is accepted as true. I had hoped to pin down the source, but if you can´t, nobody can.

I did notice the one about the botufumeiro, plus the casual admission that they completed their camino with the aid of a Landrover.

In the crossing are the ropes and ceiling pulleys of the famous botafumeiro. This is a giant censer, over 1 m high, which must hold several kilos of incense

 

[Pafayac]

The problem is that this huge number is often repeated, apparently, specially in english books:
"It is estimated that in the thirteenth century, 500,000 pilgrims made the pilgrimage to the shrine of St James in Santiago de Compostela each year (Mróz, 2020; Murray & Graham, 1997)."

• Mróz F. Poles travelling to Compostela in time and space. Journal of Cultural Geography. 2020;38(2):206–234. doi: 10.1080/08873631.2020.1864086. [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
• Murray M, Graham B. Exploring the dialectics of route-based tourism: The Camino de Santiago. Tourism Management. 1997;18(8):513–524. doi: 10.1016/S0261-5177(97)00075-7. [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]

Could some of you, native english-speakers, get the referred books in order to check what M. Mróz and Murray & Graham wrote exactly ?

The Pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago and Its Impacts on Marital and Familial Relationships: An Exploratory Study

This paper presents the results of a survey conducted among people walking the pilgrimage route to the shrine of St James in Santiago de Compostela. The aim of the research was to investigate how a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago among a ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[dick bird]

Could some of you, native english-speakers, get the referred books in order to check what M. Mróz and Murray & Graham wrote exactly ?

Don´t hold your breath. I can´t access Mroz´s article online unless I pay $50, but as it was written in 2021, it wouldn´t be the source for the magic number. I did scroll though the ref list however, most of his sources are in Polish, not a language I speak. But I shall persist.

 

[Pafayac]

Another mention of 500 000:
"By the start of the 10th century large numbers of pilgrims from across Europe were journeying to Santiago, to the point where it surpassed Rome and Jerusalem as the most popular Christian pilgrimage destination. It has been estimated that at its peak some half a million persons a year made the pilgrimage."

James Harpur, Sacred Tracks: 2000 Years of Christian Pilgrimage (London: Francis Lincoln, 2002), 99.

https://espace.curtin.edu.au/bitstream/handle/20.500.11937/20850/167372_167372.pdf;jsessionid=E565BC30037D7C563DF2EE1BC3724CD7?sequence=2

(If somebody have read "Sacred Tracks...", his help is welcome...)

 

[Bradypus]

(If somebody have read "Sacred Tracks...", his help is welcome...)

Harpur does not give any source for this claim. The book seems to be aimed at a general readership rather than an academic study. There is a short bibliography at the end of the book but no footnotes or references are given in the text itself. This is the passage on page 99 of Sacred Tracks.

 

[Kathar1na]

I´d love to know exactly where that number originated from, but as you say, it is simply a number that is repeated until it is accepted as true. I had hoped to pin down the source, but if you can´t, nobody can.

I, too, would like to know where that number originated from but I doubt that I will find the original source so don't hold your breath. "200.000 to 500.000" pilgrims to Santiago annually (or 200,000 to 500,000 resp 200 000 to 500 000) is a very frequent occurrence if one goes by online search results in French, German, and English. My Spanish is not good enough to find much; my gut feeling says that it's not a 19th century source and not a Spanish source but that is really not more than a gut feeling. Not surprisingly, research is often language/country specific. Francophone researchers focus on medieval French documents and medieval pilgrims from French speaking regions while Germanophone speakers focus on medieval German documents and medieval pilgrims from German speaking regions. There's Italy, too, and of course the British Isles.

Klaus Herbers, Robert Ploetz and Norbert Ohler are widely known historians who researched and published about the pilgrimage to Santiago, both for the general public and for their specialist colleagues. I'll post an extract (translated) from Herbers, Der Jakobuskult in Ostmitteleuropa: Austausch - Einflüsse - Wirkung in the next comment so it's about the Cult of Saint James in East Middle Europe, where again numbers are not the core topic but they are mentioned to paint an overall background, and it's always "supposedly".

As others have already said: Medieval pilgrimage was a mass phenomenon. But it was not a predominately long-distance mass phenomenon. Nor was the medieval cult of Saint James concentrated in Santiago. It was spread all over large parts of Europe, in particular France, Germany and the Benelux countries with their numerous Saint James churches and Saint James chapels and what was then regarded as authentic relics.

 

[Kathar1na]

Extract (translated) from Herbers:

Millions of pilgrims were on the road in the Middle Ages. To illustrate the dimension of pilgrimage, here are some traditional data on the number of pilgrims at various places of grace. In the Jubilee Year 1450, 40,000 pilgrims are said to have visited Rome every day; in Santiago de Compostela it is estimated that 200,000 to 500,000 pilgrims came every year. In the 15th century, contemporaries spoke of Santiago de Compostela as the place in Christendom to which the greatest number of pilgrims made the journey. It is said that 130,000 pilgrim badges were sold within a fortnight at the feast of the Consecration of the Angels [Engelweihe] in Einsiedeln in 1466. In Aachen, 42,000 people are said to have been counted during one day in 1496, and in Trier, 40,000 to 80,000 pilgrims in 1512. In Wilsnack, which had a population of about 1,000 persons, 100,000 people are said to have made the pilgrimage to the Holy Blood in a year.​

​

Edited to add - I should have read on . So here is the next paragraph:

These statements about numbers of pilgrims at the various places of grace seem very high and in many cases they ought to be regarded not as statistical data but rather as part of pilgrimage related and culture related PR, and yet, with all the necessary prudence, they give a rough idea of the huge flows of pilgrims to the holy places.​

 

[Pafayac]

I just found other sources. The first one is more prudent, it tells about "a hundred thousand" (which is huge, too, especially when considered numbers given in the footnote):
"By the height of its fame and popularity in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the modern cathedral’s glorious and astonishingly intact Pórtico de la Gloria was built by Master Mateo, some calculate that every year over a hundred thousand or more pilgrims were making the journey to the westernmost point of Europe—a Finisterre not in Brittany but in Galicia—where they gathered a scallop shell to prove the completion of their journey."
Estimates vary widely because while the carrying capacity for the land was not great the routes were far more diffuse, actually broad swathes with many feeder trails. We know that in 1189 1,500 European crusaders came to Santiago on their way to the Holy Land, while in 1394 800 English pilgrims disembarked in La Coruña, and in 1395 there were some 2,000. In 1456 Englishman William Wey affirmed that he saw 84 ships from various northern European ports in the harbour at La Coruña (Gran Enciclopedia, 18,193–4).

https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=asbookchapters

@Kathar1na says well:
"But it was not a predominately long-distance mass phenomenon. Nor was the medieval cult of Saint James concentrated in Santiago. It was spread all over large parts of Europe, in particular France, Germany and the Benelux countries with their numerous Saint James churches and Saint James chapels and what was then regarded as authentic relics."

This source says the same (in english !):

The pilgrimage of Santiago of Compostela

Pilgrimage of Santiago Compostela and the Limousin region in France. The sanctuaries of Saint James and the relations between Compostela and the Aquitains.

www.limousin-medieval.com

 

[Kirkie]

I just found other sources. The first one is more prudent, it tells about "a hundred thousand" (which is huge, too, especially when considered numbers given in the footnote):
"By the height of its fame and popularity in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the modern cathedral’s glorious and astonishingly intact Pórtico de la Gloria was built by Master Mateo, some calculate that every year over a hundred thousand or more pilgrims were making the journey to the westernmost point of Europe—a Finisterre not in Brittany but in Galicia—where they gathered a scallop shell to prove the completion of their journey."
Estimates vary widely because while the carrying capacity for the land was not great the routes were far more diffuse, actually broad swathes with many feeder trails. We know that in 1189 1,500 European crusaders came to Santiago on their way to the Holy Land, while in 1394 800 English pilgrims disembarked in La Coruña, and in 1395 there were some 2,000. In 1456 Englishman William Wey affirmed that he saw 84 ships from various northern European ports in the harbour at La Coruña (Gran Enciclopedia, 18,193–4).

https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=asbookchapters

@Kathar1na says well:
"But it was not a predominately long-distance mass phenomenon. Nor was the medieval cult of Saint James concentrated in Santiago. It was spread all over large parts of Europe, in particular France, Germany and the Benelux countries with their numerous Saint James churches and Saint James chapels and what was then regarded as authentic relics."

This source says the same (in english !):

The pilgrimage of Santiago of Compostela

Pilgrimage of Santiago Compostela and the Limousin region in France. The sanctuaries of Saint James and the relations between Compostela and the Aquitains.

www.limousin-medieval.com

This could be the stuff of a Summer School, a Winter school...
Really seriously, there is a fount of knowledge and sleuth skill here on this forum!
I will bookmark the thread, and in the dark cold of winter... yes, I will find it.
Not surprisingly, in the text referred to above that I scanned, there is reference to economy. Of course! However, pilgrimage and economy are entwined, and as old as the hills, wherever they (the hills) are.
Isn't it just so very nice to be ever so loosely linked to the draw of the heart in bygone centuries that led people to seek out the source of insurance for the afterlife?
I do speak in jest.
Partly, having read @Kathar1na's reply to the question - why?
I value the serious contributions and will learn from them.
When push comes to shove though, we are members of a forum of people from all over the globe who ARE drawn, for whatever reason, to walk, hike, cycle, lead a donkey, be carried by friends... and some fine day we will know more.
Buen camino, fellow forum members, pilgrims, hikers, whoever you choose to be.
And as the Captain said every week - "Let's be careful out there."

 

[Marbe2]

This year seemed to start with a large increase in numbers compared to last year. 30% and more for the first few months. But that initial rush seems to have tailed off and today a local news site is reporting that July numbers are actually down on last year. The Compostela total for the year to date is now about 9% above the same period last year. That is extraordinary enough given last year was a Holy Year and had the highest total recorded since the Camino's 20th century revival. But unless there is another significant bump in numbers in the autumn reaching the half-million this year now looks less likely.

The decrease in numbers of pilgrims/ tourists walking this summer is possibly due to the temperatures. I recall reading about warnings in the USA as well for hikers to be vigilant regarding the heat.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/tourists-warned-stay-off-spains-beaches-after-land-temperature-hits-60-degrees-081058594.html#:~:text=On%20the%20popular%20show%20Good,beach%20in%20July%20and%20August%E2%80%9D.&text=At%20home%2C%20Londoners%20haven't,their%20enclosures%20as%20temperatures%20rise.

 

[David Tallan]

I agree, 40/50 was considered old.

Any sources on that? It seems to fit for the working class folk in the early days of industrialization, but doesn't match my readings for earlier eras. Sure, the average life span may have been significantly lower, but that is primarily due to much greater rates of infant mortality (which will significantly affect the mean) and death in childbirth. Once you get past those, people could live normal life spans. At least, so it seems when you look at people for whom we have recorded birth and death dates.

 

[Kirkie]

Any sources on that? It seems to fit for the working class folk in the early days of industrialization, but doesn't match my readings for earlier eras. Sure, the average life span may have been significantly lower, but that is primarily due to much greater rates of infant mortality (which will significantly affect the mean) and death in childbirth. Once you get past those, people could live normal life spans. At least, so it seems when you look at people for whom we have recorded birth and death dates.

A source older than me says: 70, or 80 for those who are strong. Right now, I am right there in the middle!

 

[David Tallan]

One wonders if, 500 years from now, when the cloud has long been shut down to save energy during the climate amelioration activities, and the accompanying Great Data Purge got rid of much of the supporting data, historians will look at the figures of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims a year to Santiago in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and be very skeptical, especially when they look at some pretty much contemporary photos of the average Camino village (Foncebadon in the 80s) and they know that such a Camino could not have supported the wildly exaggerated numbers being bandied around.

 

[Bradypus]

ny sources on that? It seems to fit for the working class folk in the early days of industrialization, but doesn't match my readings for earlier eras.

The Wikipedia article on life expectancy has a large table with examples of life expectancy over many centuries and different cultures. Mostly based on information from the 1961 edition of Encylopedia Britannica and with a cautionary note on the reliability of the sources. Interesting stuff if taken with the appropriate amount of salt!

Life expectancy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Kathar1na]

I may have found it after all: René de La Coste-Messelière. He was very eager to promote the Chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle. He was the first president of the very first Camino association.

From Xacopedia:

He famously estimated that some 500,000 pilgrims per year made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in its best medieval times. This hypothesis was rejected by several scholars. Among his production stands out the book 'Pèlerins et chemins de Saint-Jacques en France et en Europe du Xe siècle a nos jours', published in Paris in 1965. (Translated from Spanish) ​

From Dictionnaire de saint Jacques et Compostelle:

René de La Coste-Messelière's estimate of "up to 500,000 a year", repeated by Daniel-Rops, has left a lasting impression on people's minds and excited their imaginations. It is based on counts based on the capacity of the hospitals [albergues], on the assumption that each of them had been created solely for Santiago pilgrims and they welcomed only Santiago pilgrims. This led to figures of several hundred thousand pilgrims per year in the Middle Ages. ​

​

Henri Daniel-Rops - With his book Sur le chemin de Compostelle, published in 1952 and lavishly illustrated with photos, this eminent Catholic historian (1901-1965) adopted without verification, and endorsed with his authority, all the hypotheses of the time, which were thus elevated to the rank of truths. (Translated from French) ​

 

[David Tallan]

The Wikipedia article on life expectancy has a large table with examples of life expectancy over many centuries and different cultures. Mostly based on information from the 1961 edition of Encylopedia Britannica and with a cautionary note on the reliability of the sources. Interesting stuff if taken with the appropriate amount of salt!

Life expectancy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The article more or less matches what I understood to be true. For example, in the 13th century, the average life expectancy at birth (for English nobles was 30. Someone could read that and think any English noble living to 40 would be considered old. But if they lived past 21 the average life expectancy was 64. At that point, I really don't think a 40 or 50 year old is considered old.

 

[Stephan the Painter]

Given current trends, it is likely that pilgrim numbers in Santiago will reach 500000, half a million, either this year or in 2024.numbers have dramatically increased, not just on the camino.

In most tourist destinations on the entire planet, tourism is at a peak this year. Most likely because of the Covid lockdowns when people put off travel plans.

And despite the important differences between pilgrimage and tourism, many people choose to spend their vacation time doing Caminos.

I think it’s unlikely that this trend continues once the post-Covid boost simmers down.

Very interesting historical information on this thread.

 

[Molly Cassidy]

The article more or less matches what I understood to be true. For example, in the 13th century, the average life expectancy at birth (for English nobles was 30. Someone could read that and think any English noble living to 40 would be considered old. But if they lived past 21 the average life expectancy was 64. At that point, I really don't think a 40 or 50 year old is considered old.

Yes average life expectancy figures are hugely skewed by high infant mortality.

 

[David Tallan]

In most tourist destinations on the entire planet, tourism is at a peak this year. Most likely because of the Covid lockdowns when people put off travel plans.

And despite the important differences between pilgrimage and tourism, many people choose to spend their vacation time doing Caminos.

I think it’s unlikely that this trend continues once the post-Covid boost simmers down.

Very interesting historical information on this thread.

I suspect, based on the evidence from previous peak years, that while the numbers may drop after the Holy Years/post-Covid bubble, there will be an echo effect and these higher numbers will lead to increasing acceleration in the future. More pilgrims walking now means more going back home and saying "what an amazing time I had" and "if I can do it you can do it" which leads to more pilgrims in the future.

 

[Bradypus]

I suspect, based on the evidence from previous peak years, that while the numbers may drop after the Holy Years/post-Covid bubble, there will be an echo effect and these higher numbers will lead to increasing acceleration in the future.

I have just looked at the annual Compostela totals back to 1970. This year is the first time that Compostela numbers have increased in the year following a Holy Year spike rather than dropping back to the underlying long-term trend. When numbers so far this year are so far removed from previous patterns I would be reluctant to make any bets on how things shape up in the next few years.

 

[VNwalking]

I may have found it after all: René de La Coste-Messelière. He was very eager to promote the Chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle. He was the first president of the very first Camino association.

Brava @Kathar1na!
So we can put that myth to bed and close this thread. No. Not 500,000 pilgrims in 1023.

 

[David Tallan]

I have just looked at the annual Compostela totals back to 1970. This year is the first time that Compostela numbers have increased in the year following a Holy Year spike rather than dropping back to the underlying long-term trend. When numbers so far this year are so far removed from previous patterns I would be reluctant to make any bets on how things shape up in the next few years.

Absolutely, I'm not saying that numbers will continue to go up from here. Just that I expect them to drop to a number higher than the pre-Covid numbers and continue to rise from there. I think the pattern is that after the Holy Year spike (in this case, Holy Years/post-Covid spike) numbers tend to drop, but not as far as they were pre-Holy Year and then continue to rise until the next Holy Year when they spike again.

They drop after a Holy Year, but drop to a higher elevation than they were pre-Holy Year. Each Holy year fives a boost to the long term trend.

 

[TravellingMan22]

Absolutely, I'm not saying that numbers will continue to go up from here. Just that I expect them to drop to a number higher than the pre-Covid numbers and continue to rise from there. I think the pattern is that after the Holy Year spike (in this case, Holy Years/post-Covid spike) numbers tend to drop, but not as far as they were pre-Holy Year and then continue to rise until the next Holy Year when they spike again.

They drop after a Holy Year, but drop to a higher elevation than they were pre-Holy Year. Each Holy year fives a boost to the long term trend.

Meeting a significant number of Europeans now (especially younger) who will no longer fly on holiday due climate crisis, and looking to do walking / trekking that they can take a bus/train to. Think it’s gonna be a big growth area and Camino welll positioned to take advantage of that!

 

[David Tallan]

Meeting a significant number of Europeans now (especially younger) who will no longer fly on holiday due climate crisis, and looking to do walking / trekking that they can take a bus/train to. Think it’s gonna be a big growth area and Camino welll positioned to take advantage of that!

I assuage my conscience with doubled carbon credits.

 

[Saint Mike II]

On a slightly different track, tangent maybe, if we look at the churches, monasteries, convents etc what numbers were required to build these and then to sustain there existence? On my two visits to Los Arcoss I marveled at the back drop to the altar. How was it built and by whom. ( Mods sorry if this goes outside the rules, by taking the OP off track) cheers.

 

[Blister Bill]

Extract (translated) from Herbers:

​

Kind of off topic, but trying to get accurate mediaeval figures even on something as relatively well documented as the 3 year journey of the 1st crusade reveals a very wide range on the contemporary sources both in terms of participants and combatants involved in the various battles. As some have highlighted, even today the debate on Compostela's issued (measurable) versus actual people walking caminos ending in SdC is a source of discussion. Exaggeration is not a modern construct !

 

[dick bird]

It has been estimated that

A giveaway linguistic trick - use of the Passive Voice to avoid saying who performed a specified action. If it was estimated, somebody estimated it, But who? The number of 500000 is looking shakier by the minute.

 

[VNwalking]

If it was estimated, somebody estimated it, But who? The number of 500000 is looking shakier by the minute

Looking?
It's clearly an imaginative estimate from a known source passed on without question, as @Kathar1na already posted (#52)

Henri Daniel-Rops - With his book Sur le chemin de Compostelle, published in 1952 and lavishly illustrated with photos, this eminent Catholic historian (1901-1965) adopted without verification, and endorsed with his authority, all the hypotheses of the time, which were thus elevated to the rank of truths

He famously estimated that some 500,000 pilgrims per year made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in its best medieval times. This hypothesis was rejected by several scholars

 

[Kathar1na]

Quotes:

René de La Coste-Messelière has estimated that, in its heyday during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the shrine attracted between 200,000 and 500,000 pilgrims each year (p. 241).​

Source: Olifant / Vol. 7, No. 2 / Winter 1979, Review of Pierre Barret and Jean-Noël Gurgand. Priez pour nous à Compostelle. La vie des pèlerins sur les chemins de Saint-Jacques. Paris: Hachette, 1978​

​

De ser precisa, la estimación recientemente formulada por el Centro Europeo de Estudios Compostelanos de haber habido durante los siglos XI al XII entre 250.000 y 500.000 peregrinos anuales​

Source: El Albergue de los Viajeros: Del Hospidaje Monástico a la Posada Urbana, Luis Martínez García​

Le Centre d’Études Compostellanes a été fondé en 1970 au sein de la Société Française des Amis de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle, sous la direction de Jeanne Vielliard puis de René de La Coste-Messelière.​

​

Where do the millions of Compostela pilgrims come from? Unfortunately, the first post-war researchers, all too quickly followed by journalists, turned what were merely symbolic and mobilising visions into numbers. Since the millions of pilgrims on the roads did not exit but are constantly talked about, where are they? They are in every book, every guidebook, every article. We read about them over and over again, and they are deeply rooted in the mind of today's pilgrims. With increasing fatigue, the poor pilgrim even ends up physically feeling them around him as he trudges through the cow pastures of the Aubrac! Who among us hasn't thought of this?​

Source: www.saint-jacques.info/millions (Wayback Machine)​

​

 

[Kathar1na]

And then there is this:

The book that will make you definitely forget about the millions of pilgrims​

In the early 2000s, it was still common to hear talk of "millions of medieval pilgrims" flocking to the roads of Compostela. In her book Les Routes de Compostelle, published in 2002 and republished in 2006, Denise Péricard-Méa showed that this claim was not related to the number of people visiting the shrine in Santiago (pages 92 to 100). Today, more and more publications have abandoned the expression "millions of pilgrims". Adeline Rucquoi's Mille fois à Compostelle confirms the 2002 findings. Its aim is to present the traces of the thousands of men and women who visited the Galician shrine. It does so by means of a substantial - perhaps exhaustive - compilation of previous works by foreign researchers or compilers, bypassing contemporary French researchers including René de La Coste-Messelière.​

Le livre qui fera oublier définitivement les millions de pèlerins​

Au début des années 2000, il était encore courant d’entendre parler des «millions de pèlerins médiévaux» se pressant sur les chemins de Compostelle. Dans son livre Les Routes de Compostelle, paru en 2002 et réédité en 2006, Denise Péricard-Méa a montré que cette affirmation n'est pas liée à la fréquentation du sanctuaire (pages 92 à 100). De plus en plus de publications ont abandonné aujourd'hui cette expression «millions de pèlerins». Mille fois à Compostelle confirme par son titre la démonstration de 2002. Son objet est de présenter les traces des milliers d’hommes et de femmes qui visitèrent le sanctuaire galicien. Il le fait par une compilation importante - peut-être exhaustive - d'ouvrages antérieurs de chercheurs ou compilateurs étrangers, négligeant les chercheurs français contemporains, y compris René de La Coste-Messelière.​

Review on https://www.institut-irj.fr/Combien-de-pelerins-a-Compostelle_a215.html. The reviewer regards it as a well-documented and erudite but not very scientific work. An assessment that presumably applies to numerous other books in this area.

 

[C clearly]

Really seriously, there is a fount of knowledge and sleuth skill here on this forum!
I will bookmark the thread

I agree. To make it easier to find in the future, I've changed the thread title (with permission of the OP, @dick bird) to include more searchable key words, and phrased it as a question so it can now be included under Frequently Asked Questions on the main Forums page. (That might be a slight exaggeration to call it a FAQ, but it is a convenient way to highlight it!)

 

[JabbaPapa]

How could they have achieved this welcome that even today Sarria with its 20 inns and 720 beds could not succeed? What then about the possibilities of Roncesvalles (today ± 200 beds) or Rabanal (today ± 208 beds)..."

Beds ? Mediaeval pilgrims habitually roughed it, and even wealthier ones travelled with tents.

You're also discounting people sleeping in barns, sleeping by the dozens on floors, paying locals for a place to sleep indoors, and so on. The ones with horse/mule/donkey and cart/carriage, sleeping in their vehicle.

Even today, Portuguese villagers who walk in groups to Fátima in large groups routinely walk between 40 to 60 K daily, and sleep wherever they can.

People are also forgetting that a large % proportion of the pilgrims to Santiago, now as then, are locals from Galicia and so on.

If you go beyond counting just the foot & bike etc. pilgrims, but also the religious pilgrims traveling by other means, probably the number of pilgrims to Santiago each year nowadays is in the millions.

500,000 is a much smaller number than at present -- though it's very hard to guess if the current numbers walking the Francès specifically and as a whole is larger now than it was then, or smaller (both would be much less than half a million anyway) -- but bearing in mind that there would have been pilgrims going in both directions ; and not just those walking to or from Santiago, but also those to or from Rome or elsewhere.

My view is that some individual Holy Years may have attracted some very large numbers at the height of it, but that numbers would have been significantly lower in a typical non-Holy Year.

 

[JabbaPapa]

The article more or less matches what I understood to be true. For example, in the 13th century, the average life expectancy at birth for English nobles was 30.

That is mainly because of the extremely high rate of deaths among babies and infants skewing that statistic.

It was not unusual to be in your 50s, or even 70s, though older than that was quite rare indeed.

 

[dick bird]

You're also discounting people sleeping in barns, sleeping by the dozens on floors, paying locals for a place to sleep indoors, and so on. The ones with horse and cart/carriage, sleeping in their vehicle.

Don´t we just love a tangent? Here´s a good one about medieval sleeping habits. Seems that waking up in the middle of the night was once considered normal behaviour. And yes, they did sleep on the floor.

The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps'

For millennia, people slept in two shifts – once in the evening, and once in the morning. But why? And how did the habit disappear?

www.bbc.com

 

[VNwalking]

500,000 is a much smaller number than at present --

500,000 is 500,000, then and now.
And clearly a hyperbolic estimate for pilgrim numbers 1000 years ago.
The rest is extra.

 

[JabbaPapa]

500,000 is 500,000, then and now.
And clearly a hyperbolic estimate for pilgrim numbers 1000 years ago.
The rest is extra.

I meant that 500,000 is a far smaller number than the likely millions of pilgrims in these 2020s, and no I don't mean millions of foot pilgrims.

I don't think it's hyperbolic -- but if you think that it means "500,000 walking the Camino Francès" as if only a certain type of foot pilgrim can be counted as a "proper pilgrim", then I think that's a misinterpretation.

The largest groups of pilgrims to Santiago would take ships and sail to the various ports in Galicia, then travel some short distance to the Cathedral, then back to their ships after a short stay. Today, those sorts of pilgrims travel by train, by plane, and by coach.

 

[VNwalking]

I don't think it's hyperbolic --

Whatever.
I tend to believe others (who are actual experts, as opposed to all of us who are just talking pilgrims).

but if you think that it means "500,000 walking the Camino Francès" as if only a certain type of foot pilgrim can be counted as a "proper pilgrim", then I think that's a misinterpretation

No one is thinking that, actually. Obviously people went on pilgrimage - there and back - in many ways that are different than what happens now. You just have to read Chaucer to know that (Caberbury as opposed to Santiago, of course - but it paints a fairly vivid picture).

 

[JabbaPapa]

No one is thinking that, actually.

But it seems that it's what several people are arguing against, except it's a false point.

The quotes talk of half a million "arriving at" Compostela, which many seem to have been taken as a claim of about half a million foot pilgrims walking there.

Bearing in mind the likely large number of local pilgrims from Galicia plus the large number of pilgrims travelling by ship, half a million seems not an exaggerated number at all in a Holy Year at the height of the mediaeval pilgrimages era.

It only seems exaggerated if you think it refers to "foot pilgrims walking long distances".

 

[Kathar1na]

As to the 250,000 to 500,000: We ought to be clear about the topics of discussion of which there are several now in this thread. This is not surprising of course as we are approaching 100+ comments and thread drift is next to inevitable.

• Is it about the question of where this frequently cited number comes from? Who is the originator? Is there rigorous scientific research behind it? Or speculation, wishful thinking, a desire to promote the Way of Saint James, the Camino to Santiago?
  
  
• Or is it about how plausible this frequently cited number appears to be to the individual reader? About speculation what the number refers to precisely in the absence of anyone here in the thread having seen the original source? About how one feels about this number without a meaningful argument such as the one presented by @Murk in post #9? BTW, welcome to the forum and to the discussion, @Murk , I've wondered about population numbers. Also about how many inhabitants Santiago had at the time ...

As far as I am concerned, I've commented on efforts to find origin and originator for the 250,000 to 500,000 quote. We've narrowed it down to the early period of the Chemin/Camino movement in France in the post-war period: 1950-1980.

When Jean Noël Gurgand and Pierre Barret, the French journalists who wrote "Priez pour nous à Compostelle", returned from their foot march from Vezelay to Santiago in 1977, they were in contact with the French Camino Association in Paris - the one that had been founded in 1950. A quote from the IRJ website (translated): In 1978, René de La Coste, recently elected President of the Association, signed the preface to "Priez pour nous à Compostelle". The book was a great success thanks to the fame of its authors. They had a major influence in bringing awareness of the pilgrimage to the general public, to whom they recounted the life of medieval pilgrims as they imagined it from their experience and from the knowledge provided by the Association. BTW, this is not from just anyone owning a website. It is from people who were there when it happened. How know or knew each other. As already mentioned, this book contributed to the spreading of the idea that (supposedly) millions and millions were on the way to Santiago every year in the Middle Ages.

You may have noticed that there is relatively little information in my quotes that is published online in English. René de la Coste, Jeannine Warcollier, Jeanne Veillard - who has ever heard of these people? And yet they were the pioneers in the contemporary Camino history. Without them, would we ever have heard of Elias Valiña Sampedro, and, although they are in a different league and I should not name them in the same sentence , of Coelho, MacLaine, Kerkeling, Sheen? Ivar Rekve? Would we be here? I sometimes doubt it.

 

[Blister Bill]

Gosh you are right about thread drift !

 

[JabbaPapa]

That is a great post @Kathar1na.

The issue regarding rigorous scientific research is the question what was a pilgrim in the Middle Ages ?

If we try and answer that question from 20th and 21st Century notions, I think it's hard to do otherwise than get it wrong.

Or is it about how plausible this frequently cited number appears to be to the individual reader?

Yes, I think so.

 

[WGroleau]

I also want to give actual historians (which I'm not) the benefit of the doubt.

Neither am I, but I have to wonder whether we can as a general rule trust “historical evidence.” Historians find numerous ancient documents attesting to a certain fact and conclude it is true. But how do we know those writers weren’t all basing their conclusions on the report of some crackpot like the ones whose nonsense gets thousands of repostings on social media in spite of the fact that they would recognize obvious B.S. were they to think five seconds before reposting?

 

[Bellbutt]

Good, I´ve got your attention.

I am not talking about 2023, I am talking about 1023 (or 1223, or 1323)

Given current trends, it is likely that pilgrim numbers in Santiago will reach 500000, half a million, either this year or in 2024. This will be described as ´unprecedented´. However, this extraordinary number may be no more than a return to Medieval levels. The number of five hundred thousand pilgrims a year arriving in Santiago in the middle ages has been bandied about, but the last time I quoted it I was slapped down by a fellow forum member who had studied under that towering figure of Romanesque studies, Meyer Schapiro. Meyer Schapiro was an Art Historian with the emphasis on art, he never claimed to be an authority on general let alone pilgrim history. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the notion that in the middle ages, half a million people a year were pouring into what was then a much smaller city than it is now, so during lockdown I started to do some research.

It is an elusive figure, the best I found was this:
Guesses for medieval pilgrim numbers to Santiago vary from 0.5 to 2 million a year (Rahtz and Watts 1986: 52). Spread evenly over the year this works out at between 1,400 and 5,500 arriving at the shrine per day. Each of these pilgrims travelled both there and back. These are phenomenal numbers of people. (Some Approaches to the Archaeology of Christian Pilgrimage Author(s): J. Stopford Source: World Archaeology , Jun., 1994, Vol. 26, No. 1, Archaeology of Pilgrimage (Jun., 1994), pp. 57-72).

Unfortunately, I couldn´t get hold of the cited original, Rahtz and Watts. The article is worth reading and mentions other reports and possibly contemporary estimates of hundred of thousands of pilgrims at places like Aachen and Wilsnack.

The most interesting research, though, was by a certain Ben Nilson of the University of British Columbia, whose speciality is medieval English pilgrimage. He was attempting to verify claims by Canterbury cathedral to be receiving hundreds of thousands of pilgrims a year to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. His findings were published in ´Pilgrimage Explored´ (1999, York Medieval Press). He was able to examine the accounts of Lincoln Cathedral, which have not only survived in remarkably good condition, but were carefully itemised. This reveal that in 1325, the sum of 28 pounds, 3 shillings and tenpence was deposited on the altar of the shrine of St. Hugh of Lincoln, mainly in the form of penny coins, with a few farthings. On the assumption that these were token offerings, and each pilgrim would leave one coin, Nilson inferred that in the course of one year, St. Hugh was receiving around 7000 visitors a year. Given that St. Hugh was an obscure saint even in 1325, he concluded that Canterbury´s claim was at least plausible.

If Canterbury was receiving hundreds of thousands, we can be pretty confident that Santiago was receiving at least as many, if not a lot more.

It makes you think, doesn´t it?

Having finished my second Camino this June (CF in 2022 and Portuguese -from Porto-this year), and hearing of "record setting" numbers walking this year, and now reading this thread, I marvel at peoples quest for knowledge about this amazing subject. I am about as far as you can get from being a scholar about anything so reading this thread is very interesting. I have many times joked that a "true pilgrim" walked back! So regardless of how many pilgrims, and in what year, walked The Camino- I am in awe of them and the history they were part of. You could feel them in every step of the way. So, thanks to all of you sharing your knowledge and thoughts so that my experience is even more vivid and important to me.

 

[JNehring]

OK, a brief explanatory introduction. What follows is the thread as it first developed under the original title ¨500000 pilgrims expected in 1023¨ If you want to know the answer to the question posed by the new title, you could read through the whole thread - it is well-worth the effort because there is some fascinating stuff here as well as some impressive research. Or just skip to post 51#

Good, I´ve got your attention.

I am not talking about 2023, I am talking about 1023 (or 1223, or 1323)

Given current trends, it is likely that pilgrim numbers in Santiago will reach 500000, half a million, either this year or in 2024. This will be described as ´unprecedented´. However, this extraordinary number may be no more than a return to Medieval levels. The number of five hundred thousand pilgrims a year arriving in Santiago in the middle ages has been bandied about, but the last time I quoted it I was slapped down by a fellow forum member who had studied under that towering figure of Romanesque studies, Meyer Schapiro. Meyer Schapiro was an Art Historian with the emphasis on art, he never claimed to be an authority on general let alone pilgrim history. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the notion that in the middle ages, half a million people a year were pouring into what was then a much smaller city than it is now, so during lockdown I started to do some research.

It is an elusive figure, the best I found was this:
Guesses for medieval pilgrim numbers to Santiago vary from 0.5 to 2 million a year (Rahtz and Watts 1986: 52). Spread evenly over the year this works out at between 1,400 and 5,500 arriving at the shrine per day. Each of these pilgrims travelled both there and back. These are phenomenal numbers of people. (Some Approaches to the Archaeology of Christian Pilgrimage Author(s): J. Stopford Source: World Archaeology , Jun., 1994, Vol. 26, No. 1, Archaeology of Pilgrimage (Jun., 1994), pp. 57-72).

Unfortunately, I couldn´t get hold of the cited original, Rahtz and Watts. The article is worth reading and mentions other reports and possibly contemporary estimates of hundred of thousands of pilgrims at places like Aachen and Wilsnack.

The most interesting research, though, was by a certain Ben Nilson of the University of British Columbia, whose speciality is medieval English pilgrimage. He was attempting to verify claims by Canterbury cathedral to be receiving hundreds of thousands of pilgrims a year to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. His findings were published in ´Pilgrimage Explored´ (1999, York Medieval Press). He was able to examine the accounts of Lincoln Cathedral, which have not only survived in remarkably good condition, but were carefully itemised. This reveal that in 1325, the sum of 28 pounds, 3 shillings and tenpence was deposited on the altar of the shrine of St. Hugh of Lincoln, mainly in the form of penny coins, with a few farthings. On the assumption that these were token offerings, and each pilgrim would leave one coin, Nilson inferred that in the course of one year, St. Hugh was receiving around 7000 visitors a year. Given that St. Hugh was an obscure saint even in 1325, he concluded that Canterbury´s claim was at least plausible.

If Canterbury was receiving hundreds of thousands, we can be pretty confident that Santiago was receiving at least as many, if not a lot more.

It makes you think, doesn´t it?

For Rahtz and Watts, go here: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1075400. Download the edited volume and go to p. 52. There you will see the authors make a brief mention of a "guess" at the number of medieval pilgrims. The Rahtz and Watts article is in an edited volume:
Butler, L. A S. and Morris, R., eds. (1986). The Anglo-Saxon church: papers on history, architecture, and archaeology in honour of Dr H M Taylor. https://doi.org/10.5284/1081671.