{"id":8318,"date":"2022-10-30T14:02:20","date_gmt":"2022-10-30T14:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prueba.caminodesantiagofrances.com\/en\/?page_id=8318"},"modified":"2025-10-01T14:51:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T12:51:58","slug":"descripcion-via-aquitania","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/caminodesantiagofrances.com\/en\/via-aquitania\/descripcion-via-aquitania\/","title":{"rendered":"Descripci\u00f3n V\u00eda Aquitania"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Description of the V\u00eda Aquitania Roman Road<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Way of St. James along the V\u00eda Aquitania Roman Road<\/strong> begins, on the Spanish side, at the Roman mansio of Imo Pyreneo (Saint Jean Pied de Port<\/a><\/strong>) on the French side of the border, continues along the same route as the Camino Frances Calixtino<\/strong> as far as the Mansio Pompelone (Pamplona<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>), and continues through the mansios of Alatondo (Atondo), Aracaeli (Huarte Araquil), Alba (San Rom\u00e1n de San Mill\u00e1n), Tullonio (Alegr\u00eda \u2013 Dulantzi), Suessatio (Arkaia), Beleia (Iru\u00f1a \u2013 Trespuentes), Deobriga (Arce Mirap\u00e9rez \u2013 Miranda de Ebro), Videleia (Pancorbo), Virovesca (Briviesca), Tritium (Rodilla); from Burgos it follows the Camino de Santiago Frances<\/a><\/strong> as far as Deobr\u00edgula (Tardajos<\/a><\/strong>), then continues through Segisamone (Sasam\u00f3n), Dessobriga (Osorno la Mayor) (Melgar de Fernamental) and Lacobriga (Carri\u00f3n de los Condes<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>)<\/strong>, before rejoining the Camino Frances Calixtino<\/strong> all the way to Santiago de Compostela<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is evidence of pilgrims passing through the Monasterio de Zamartze<\/strong> during the Middle Ages, at the site of the former Mansio de Aracaeli<\/strong>, in Navarra<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 excavations carried out between 2010 and 2016 uncovered scallop shells and a pilgrim’s staff in graves at the monastery, evidence that Zamartze was used as a pilgrim hospital between the 10th and 14th centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Basque\u2013Castilian stretch, now known as the V\u00eda Bayona<\/strong>, regained great importance from the reign of Alfonso VIII onwards, when he invaded \u00c1lava with a long siege of Vitoria, Guip\u00fazcoa and the Duranguesado, linking up with Bayonne through the San Adri\u00e1n Tunnel from the Roman Road XXXIV Ab Asturica Burdigalam<\/strong>, near San Mill\u00e1n \/ Salvatierra. This turned it into a Camino Real<\/strong> (Royal Road), creating a safe route to the French border via Bayonne without crossing the lands of his Navarrese enemy, and encouraging a pilgrim<\/a><\/strong><\/strong> route as an alternative to Pamplona<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>. King Alfonso X promoted the use of this route, founding several towns between 1256 and 1268, among them Salvatierra in \u00c1lava, at the point where it joins the Roman road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sasam\u00f3n (Burgos) there are remains such as the Casa Cuartel and the pilgrim hospital run by the Order of the Templars<\/strong> for those travelling to Santiago, and Jacobean traces can be seen on the south portal of Santa Mar\u00eda de Sasam\u00f3n<\/strong>, which tells the story known as “the pilgrim to Santiago who was deceived by the devil”. This tale, written in Latin for propagandistic purposes \u2014 intended to promote and spread word of the miraculous powers of the Apostle James<\/strong> \u2014 appears in prose form in the Codex Calixtinus<\/strong> (Moralejo, Torres, and Feo, 1992), attributed to Saint Anselm of Canterbury. It also appears, again written in Latin, in a 12th-century codex from the Catedral de Santo Domingo de la Calzada<\/a><\/strong> (Spain), the same story that Gonzalo de Berceo captures as number 8 of his Miracles of Our Lady, and which is retold, now in Galician, in cantiga no. 26 of King Alfonso X the Wise, whose protagonists are the Virgin Mary and a Jacobean pilgrim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Arconada<\/strong> (Province of Palencia<\/strong>), which had a priory and a hospital \u2014 the latter founded in 1042 by Count G\u00f3mez D\u00edaz of the powerful Beni G\u00f3mez family, as recorded in the hospital’s founding inscription kept at the Iglesia de Santa Mar\u00eda del Camino<\/a><\/strong> in Carri\u00f3n de los Condes<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> \u2014 the hospital served pilgrims on their way to Santiago and had a purely charitable purpose, as shown in the following words of its founding count:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“It occurred to me to build a place of alms for the poor and for travellers \u2014 those poor and those travellers who crowd the road laid out since ancient times for those going to and coming from San Pedro and the Apostle James”<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Arconada already carried the Jacobean association \u2014 Camino de Santiago<\/em> \u2014 by the year 1047. Like many other holdings of the count, it was donated to the Monasterio de San Zoilo<\/a><\/strong>, the institution under his family’s patronage and the place they chose as their family pantheon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the stretch between Segisamone (Sasam\u00f3n<\/strong>) and Lacobriga<\/strong> (Carri\u00f3n de los Condes<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>), Dessobriga (Osorno) lies roughly halfway between the two mansios; along this whole stretch the road is known as the Camino de Santiago Frances<\/a><\/strong> or Carrera Francesa, a name of medieval origin commonly given to roads travelled by pilgrims arriving from France, since the earliest pilgrims always followed the old Roman roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the High Middle Ages and the early Late Middle Ages, roads used to travel from one place to another followed the layout of the old Roman roads \u2014 public works of that kind were scarce at the time, so these older routes were relied upon. This case was no different, until King Alfonso VI of Le\u00f3n took advantage of a flood on the river Pisuerga that swept away the bridge at Melgar to build up and strengthen the route via the Puente de Fitero<\/a><\/strong> (the bridge between Itero del Castillo<\/a><\/strong> and Itero de la Vega<\/a><\/strong>) in the 11th century, since this land belonged to the crown. From then on both roads coexisted, with the Camino Real<\/strong> gaining precedence \u2014 the route also mentioned in the C\u00f3dice Calixtino<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The new road did not, however, mean the total disappearance of the earlier ones, which, being built on firmer and better-drained ground, remained the best-kept routes throughout the medieval and modern periods, used mainly by convoys with slow, heavy means of transport and larger loads, as still happens today. To this day, recent land surveys of towns such as Grijalba still refer to the old Camino Real from Burgos to Melgar, as it passes through the municipal boundary, as the Calzada Romana or ‘pilgrims’ road’.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Description of the V\u00eda Aquitania Roman Road The Way of St. James along the V\u00eda Aquitania Roman Road begins, on the Spanish side, at the Roman mansio of Imo Pyreneo (Saint Jean Pied de Port) on the French side of the border, continues along the same route as the Camino Frances Calixtino as far as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":8270,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8318","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caminodesantiagofrances.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caminodesantiagofrances.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caminodesantiagofrances.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caminodesantiagofrances.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caminodesantiagofrances.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/caminodesantiagofrances.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8318\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caminodesantiagofrances.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caminodesantiagofrances.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}