The History
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The origins of the pilgrimage to Compostela along the Northern route, which enters Galicia from Asturias, date back to the times immediately after the discovery of the Apostle St. James’s tomb, in the 9th century. The Asturian and Galician routes were the first to direct pilgrims towards Santiago. This route was as busy as the other older Compostelan routes, even before the Spanish monarchs promoted the French Route as the finest one, in the 11th and 12th centuries. This promotion did not lead to the decline of the Asturian and Galician pilgrimae routes.
 
In general, pilgrims arrived by land from France, or by sea from northern European countries, landing at the Basque, Cantabrian and Galician ports. They then walked to San Salvador in Oviedo and towards obtaining grace in Compostela.  
There were several ways to enter Galicia. One way would be to cross by boat from Castropol to Ribadeo, which received other pilgrims by sea and had its own hospital, or to go along the edge of the river Eo, which was crossed by several bridges, including the one in Santiago de Abres. These crossings  created different routes towards Vilanova de Lourenzá, Mondoñedo y Lugo.
 
HOSPITALITY AND PILGRIMAGE on the Northern Route
 
In the neighbourhood of A Ponte, in Ribadeo, by the Chapel of A Nosa Señora das Virtudes, stood the first Galician hospital on the route. It was called Hospital de A Nosa Señora da Ponte, and was founded in 1543 to attend to pilgrims arriving from the Kingdom of León and the Principality of Asturias. This was how the Northern Route began: a unique experience of hospitality and a sensitive combination of Christian charity and philanthropic aid.  
 
At the Monastery of Vilanova de Lourenzá, pilgrims were well-attended by the Benedictines, who were pioneers in this type of care. Chapter LIII of the Rules of the Order summarize the feeling perfectly: “that all guests who arrive at the monastery should be greeted as if they were Christ himself”. The Count Don Osorio Gutiérrez, founder of the monastery, dedicated part of his will to the provision of beds to accommodate the poor and pilgrims. This was in 969, which goes to show how busy the Northern Route already was at the middle of the10th century.  
 
In Mondoñedo, there are documents dating from 1602 that describe the San Pablo Hospital for pilgrims on their way to Compostela. That same year, Bishop González de Samaniego told the Pope about it, stating that it was well-supplied and that many Galician and foreign pilgrims stayed there. The other large monastic centre on the route is Sobrado dos Monxes. After it was re-founded and joined the Cistercians in 1142, it became one of the most important monasteries in Galicia and one of the most well-known to pilgrims, causing some even to make detours off other routes.  
 
Of all the Compostelan pilgrims who travelled to Santiago along the Northern Route over the centuries, one of the most important was Saint Francis of Assisi. According to tradition, he made a pilgrimage to San Salvador in Oviedo and Santiago de Compostela in 1214. At the end of the 15th century, the Armenian Bishop Martyr of Azerdjan, who, in the tale of his pilgrimage defined the meaning of the Portal of Glory, or Pórtico de la Gloria better than anyone else, travelled from Rome to Santiago. Both on the way there and on the way back he chose the Northern Route, passing through the Basque  Country, Cantabria and Asturias. There are two 16th-century tales of pilgrims who followed this route: Antonio Lalaing, lord of Montigny (1502) and the Italian, Bartolomeo Fontana (1539).
 
During the Baroque period, also, some pilgrims wrote about their experiences: Jacob Sobieski (1611), father of King John III of Poland, made the pilgrimage along the French Route as far as León, then took a detour in Oviedo and headed for the coastal road to Ribadeo, continuing to Santiago along the Northern Route. The Italian Sebastian Gatti arrived in Ribadeo by sea in 1698 and continued on foot to Santiago. The Frenchman Guillaume Manier and his pilgrimage companions chose the Northern Route in 1726 to return overseas. Finally, his compatriot Jean-Pierre Racq (1790), left a detailed description of his pilgrimage to San Salvador in Oviedo and to Santiago de Compostela along the Northern Route.
 
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