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Gironde on the Ways of Saint James of Compostela

From the beginning of the 11th  century, the relics  of Christ’s apostle  Saint James buried in Galicia became a symbol of the Christian reconquest of Spain, and a destination for thousands of pilgrims. Since that time, the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostela has taken its...
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From the beginning of the 11th  century, the relics  of Christ’s apostle  Saint James buried in Galicia became a symbol of the Christian reconquest of Spain, and a destination for thousands of pilgrims. Since that time, the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostela has taken its place alongside those to Rome and Jerusalem as one of the great Christian pilgrimages.
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Abbaye de la Sauve Majeure
CDT 33 - Bernard Lamarque

Pilgrims travelled the four major routes listed in the “Saint James of Compostela Pilgrims’ Guide” written in the 12th  century by Aymeri Picaud, a monk from Poitiers: the Via Turonensis from Paris to Ostabat at the foot of the Pyrenees, the Via Lemovicensis from Vézelay to Ostabat, the Via Podiensis from Puy-en-Velay to Ostabat, and the Via Tolosana from Arles to Puente la Reina in Spain.

Three great historical roads pass through Gironde – the Paris (or Tours) Way, the Vézelay Way, and the  Coastal Way.

Other secondary roads were also travelled by pilgrims, including the  Libournais road and the Entre-Deux-Mers road, the Graves roads, the Sauternais road and the  Landes Girondines road.

Churches, abbeys, hospitals, fountains, milestones and graveyard crosses... Gironde boasts a major pilgrims’ heritage that includes numbers of sites that should on no account be missed, including Notre-Dame-De-La-Fin-Des-Terres church in Soulac, La Sauve-Majeure Abbey, and  Saint-Jean-Baptiste Cathedral in Bazas, all three of which are  UNESCO World Heritage  sites.

The Paris/Tours Way (or Via Turonensis): running from Pleine-Selve to Belin-Beliet, via Blaye, Bordeaux and Gradignan, this was the route taken by Charlemagne when he came to bury Roland in Blaye and his companions in Belin-Beliet after the defeat at Roncevalles (August 778).

 

The Vézelay Way   is made up of two roads that meet at Bazas. One ran through Sainte-Foy-la-Grande and La Réole, and the other through La Sauve-Majeure, a major gathering place for pilgrims setting off to Compostela and the Holy Land.

The Coastal Way  or “English road”   ran alongside the Atlantic dunes from Soulac – a gathering point for pilgrims arriving from England, Holland, Brittany and Normandy – to Bayonne.

 

 

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