The XIX Pilgrim Festival “Abrindo Camiño” will turn Lugo and Mondoñedo on September 5 and 6 into a meeting point for the Jacobean movement in northern Spain. Associations, institutions, journalists and specialists will analyze the challenges of the Caminos de Santiago, the new perspectives of the routes and the projects linked to the next Holy Year 2027.
The meeting, presented as Jacobean Congress/Meeting in Galicia of the Caminos de Santiago del Norte, will bring together representatives from Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country for two days, as well as institutional officials related to different Jacobean itineraries.
The first day will be held on Saturday, September 5 in Lugo, while on Sunday the 6th the activities will move to Mondoñedo.
The challenges of the Camino, under debate in Lugo
The program will begin on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. with a reception at the Cathedral Basilica of Lugo and a guided tour of the Diocesan and Cathedral Museum.
At 5:30 p.m. there will be a tour of the walkway of the Roman Wall of Lugo and, from 7:00 p.m., the O Vello Cárcere Cultural Center will host the official inauguration and one of the highlights of the conference: a discussion table dedicated to the challenges and new perspectives of the Caminos de Santiago, the so-called “neocaminos”, cultural itineraries of regional interest, historical pilgrimage routes and projects related to the Jacobean Holy Year 2027.
Cantabria, Asturias, Galicia and the Basque Country
The association table will have representatives from different northern territories.
Among them are José Ignacio Galzacorta Arana, from the Association of Friends of the Camino de Santiago de Irún; José María Balsa Vidal, from Pilgrims for Cantabria; Laureano García Díez, linked to the Camino de Santiago de Tineo and the Asturian Federation, and Javier Gómez Vila, from the Vía Künig de Lugo and the Galician Federation.
The table will be moderated by Valeriano Teja Oruña, president of Pilgrims for Cantabria and the Group of Associations of the Caminos de Santiago del Norte.
There will also be an institutional table with representatives from Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia, including those responsible for the Camino Lebaniego Foundation, Cultural Heritage of the Principality of Asturias and the management of the Xacobeo Plan.
Mondoñedo takes over on Sunday
The second day will begin on Sunday, September 6 at 10:00 a.m. at the Royal Seminary of Santa Catalina de Mondoñedo.
The program includes the screening of short audiovisuals related to the Historical Pilgrimage Route of Asturias, the cultural itinerary The Künig Way and the maritime variant of the Camino del Norte.
There will also be a Extraordinary Open Assembly of the Group of Associations of Friends of the Camino de Santiago del Norte.
Later there will be a visit to the Cathedral and the Diocesan Museum and, at 12:00 p.m., the traditional Pilgrim's Mass.
Jacobean stories and 1,200 years of the Xacobeo
Another of the most interesting sections will be “Jacobean Stories”, with different interventions in the Chapel of the Venerable Third Franciscan Order.
Among the topics announced is a particularly attractive dissertation:
“A Inventio Xacobea turns 1,200 years old in this decade.”
The relationship of the Mindonian writer will also be addressed. Alvaro Cunqueiro with the Camino de Santiago and the figure of Elías Valiña, one of the fundamental characters to understand the contemporary recovery of the Camino.
The day will continue with a Jacobean pilgrimage in the recreational and ethnographic area of To Fervenza, in Viloalle-Mondoñedo, Galician gastronomy, traditional music and popular activities.
Camino de Santiago RTV will be at the conference
The XIX Xornadas do Peregrino will also have audiovisual coverage.
The program itself expressly announces:
“Online broadcast and reports through RTV Camino de Santiago.”
An opportunity to bring the days, its protagonists and the debates on the future of the Northern Ways closer to pilgrims and followers of the Jacobean phenomenon who cannot travel to Lugo and Mondoñedo.
The meeting also comes at a particularly interesting time for the Jacobean world, when different territories begin to look towards 2027 and to the new Holy Year.
For two days, Lugo and Mondoñedo will not only be places crossed by the Camino.
They will be places where they will talk about their past, their present and, especially, their future.
