Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2015

Heritage, Pilgrimage and the Camino to Finisterre

Walking to the End of the World

  • Focuses on heritage management and local population issues in the Camino, on the route to Finisterre
  • Provides a new analysis of pilgrimage and heritage
  • Delivers intriguing insights into efforts to market the “End of the World”
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: GeoJournal Library (GEJL, volume 117)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
  2. To Walk and to Be Walked… at the End of the World

    • Cristina Sánchez-Carretero
    Pages 1-20
  3. Local Impacts of the Pilgrimage to Finisterre

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 93-93
    2. Heritagization of the Camino to Finisterre

      • Cristina Sánchez-Carretero
      Pages 95-119
    3. Processes of Change in Olveiroa, A Hostel Village

      • Paula Ballesteros-Arias
      Pages 135-161
    4. Archaeological Heritage Management Along the Camino

      • Carlos Otero-Vilariño
      Pages 163-172
  4. Spirituality, Motives and the End of the World

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 173-173

About this book

This book presents research concerning the effects of the Camino to Finisterre on the daily lives of the populations who live along the route, and the heritagization processes that exploitation of the Camino for tourism purposes involves. Rather than focusing on the route to Santiago de Compostela and the pilgrimage itself, it instead examines a peculiar part of the route, the Camino to Finisterre, employing multiple perspectives that consider the processes of heritagization, the effects of the pilgrimage on local communities, and the motivations of the pilgrims. The book is based on a three-year research project and is the result of a multidisciplinary collaboration between anthropologists, sociologists, historians and archaeologists.

Instead of ending in Santiago, as the rest of the Caminos do, this route continues to the cape of Finisterre on the Galician Atlantic coast. This part of the Camino de Santiago is not officially recognized by the Catholic Church and doesnot count as part of reaching Compostela, the recognition granted by the Catholic Church to those pilgrims who have walked at least 100 km. For this reason, as well as its relationship with the sun cult, many pilgrims call this route “the Camino of the atheists.” In fact, the Catholic Church is a strong force for the heritagization of the rest of the Caminos, and maintains a clear ignoratio strategy concerning the Finisterre route: Officially, the church neither opposes nor recognizes this route.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit) Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Cristina Sánchez-Carretero

About the editor

Cristina Sánchez-Carretero is a staff researcher at the Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She was awarded a PhD by the University of Pennsylvania for her dissertation on the revitalization of religious practices among Dominican migrant workers in Spain (2002). Her areas of interest are: processes of traditionalisation and heritage formation; the intersection of migration and cultural heritage (in particular, the role of the revitalization of religious practices after migrating); and the role of rituals and expressive culture in contemporary societies. She has published extensively on these topics and has edited the books: Performance, arte verbal y comunicación (2000), with Dorothy Noyes; Holidays, Ritual, Festival, Celebration, and Public Display (2003), with Jack Santino; El Archivo del Duelo (2011); and Grassroots Memorials. The Politics of Memorializing Traumatic Death (Berghahn), co-edited with Peter Jan Margry (2011).

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access