Northern Camino declared World Heritage
The Northern Camino de Santiago will be the only candidate that Spain will present in 2012 to UNESCO to be declared World Heritage. This was announced yesterday by the Spanish Historical Heritage Council, which has selected the routes that include the Camino Primitivo —which begins in Oviedo— and the Coastal Route along the Cantabrian coastline, as well as the Baztán route in Navarre, the inland Basque route and the Lebaniego route. In total, 1,100 kilometres running through the Basque Country, Navarre, La Rioja, Cantabria, the Principality of Asturias and Galicia.
These six regions began work in 2006 to prepare the technical dossier for their candidacy. The presentation before the World Heritage Committee will take place in February 2012, followed by the evaluation process by the international organisation.
Cultural exchange axis
The Camino de Santiago has been one of the world’s main pilgrimage routes for 1,200 years. It links various points in Europe with Santiago de Compostela, where, according to tradition, the relics of the Apostle James are kept in the cathedral. Around it, “cultural, economic and social relations and exchanges have taken place among the different peoples of Europe,” notes the Department of Culture of the Basque Government. “These exchanges are what give the Camino such a special character, which goes beyond the religious dimension.”
All the routes that compose it were included in 1987 under the distinction of First European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe. Later, in 1993 and 1999, UNESCO agreed to inscribe the French route and the four routes of France on the World Heritage List. The current candidacy aims to complete the recognition already granted to the pilgrimage route, since the origins of the Camino are closely linked to the north of Spain.
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