The Camino de Finisterre is a path running from Santiago de Compostela to Cabo de Finisterre on the Galician coast. The camino was the original finale of the Camino de Santiago, the famous medieval pilgrimage to see the bones of St James held in the cathedral at Santiago. After venerating the sacred relics, pilgrims would walk the final leg to Cabo Finisterre, the end of the known world, and wash themselves in the Atlantic in an act symbolising their rebirth.
Cabo Finisterre has always been a highly symbolic place and was a place of pilgrimage in pre Christian times - Roman legionnaires are reputed to have retired to the nearby city of Dugium in order to be closer to heaven.
These days most pilgrims end their walk at Santiago and take a bus to Finisterre but in doing so miss some of the prettiest countryside in Galicia. The Camino stretches for just under 90 kms and passes through woodland, fields and the Atlantic coast through traditional villages and over medieval bridges. It takes three long days to complete, staying in pensiones or albergas along the way and enjoying the local hospitality and excellent food and wine.
The walk ends at the Atlantic which was not just a geographical barrier but also marked the frontier of the medieval world's knowledge, the limit of their consciousness. Of course in reality Cabo finisterre was not the end of the world and the New and Old worlds would eventually collide in cataclysmic fashion, the results of which have had a profound effect on our (and their) civilisations.
For the modern pilgrim, as you look across the ocean you can imagine what lies ahead but in reality, just like the medieval pilgrims, we have no idea of what lies ahead of us. The future may be flat or round and only time will tell us which.
