Camino pilgrims help keep rural Spanish towns alive

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The Camino helps create jobs and maintain the cultural heritage, said Melchor Fernández, professor of economics at the University of Santiago de Compostela. “It has put the brakes on depopula…

TERRADILLOS DE LOS TEMPLARIOS, Spain — Amid the vast grain fields of Spain, a medieval church stands guard over the handful of adobe homes where some 50 people live — and twice as many travelers along the Camino de Santiago spend the night this summer.

In this hamlet named after a medieval knightly order founded to protect pilgrims, and all along the route, the return of travelers — after pandemic-related disruptions — is helping restore the livelihood and vitality of villages that were steadily losing jobs, population, even their social fabric. Mechanization drastically reduced the need for farm laborers. As young people moved away, shops and cafes shuttered.

In Cirauqui, a hilltop village in Navarra, the lone bakery survived because dozens of pilgrims stop by it daily, said baker Conchi Sagardía while serving a pastry and fruit juice to a pilgrim from Florida. In growing instances, the signature yellow arrows lead to bars or foot massage businesses instead of the Camino. One recent morning in the town of Tardajos, Esteban Velasco, a retired shepherd, stood at a crossroads pointing the correct route to pilgrims.

The 900-year-old church of Santa María in Los Arcos is one of the Camino villages’ most magnificent, with a soaring belltower and intricately sculpted altarpiece. Pilgrims often double the numbers attending weekday Masses, said the Rev. Andrés Lacarra.

 

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