Camino architecture

[biloute]

I've started back at school this year for an architecture related degree. A couple of the professors are hosting a trip to Italy if they can get enough people to go, but it's very expensive. $2100 for 9 days, not including airfare or most meals. Since we're all broke students (tuition is about $20,000 per year) I'm thinking about getting a group together to plan our own trip without having to pay for the professors' costs and the first thing that came to mind was the Chemin du Puy.

My idea is to study the architecture of the Way of St. James, especially in France but also possibly in Spain. We have limited time because we have to do 8-10 week internships each summer so we'd only be able to do a portion of the Camino.

My thoughts on places to definitely talk about are these:
1. Notre Dame du Puy
2. Conques
3. Notre Dame de Paris
4. Chartres cathedral
5. Santiago de Compostela cathedral (if time allows)
6. Burgos cathedral (if time allows)

In order to get credit, I thought of having each of us present a location/building to each other, with a written version to turn in, as well as taking sketches of important sites along the way. I haven't been able to find much so far though on any of the other places along the way that aren't so famous, or what architectural details might be common or important. Does anyone know of any resources that I could look into on Camino architecture that would make this more of a study abroad experience? I would want to have us all walk at least between Le Puy and Conques (2 weeks). I don't know if we'd have enough time to go from Sarria to Santiago as well (and train tickets would be somewhat expensive to get there).

 

[Kiwi-family]

I have just been researching (read "I googled it and asked questions on the forum") good routes with regards to architecture as two of my sons are interested in architecture. We have settled on the Via de la Plata, thanks in large part to the responses we received in this thread: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/via-de-la-plata-architecture.36718/#post-347814
Ancient Roman ruins, Visigothic, Gothic, Romanesque, Renaissance, templar towers, bullrings, arches, monasteries, chapels, cathedrals......it's a rich route. Our kids are researching (with paper books from the library to start with) the cities Seville (including Italica), Merida, Salamanca and Zamora - there are wonderful things to see in each of these, and much more along the route if the friendly pilgrims on this forum are to be believed. If time is at a premium, you might consider taking a bus between some places. We have looked into this as my 84-year-old father-in-law is accompanying us and does not know if he will manage 20+km each day - bus options seem almost always present, and when there is no bus there is always a taxi. Obviously poor students will take a bus!
All the best with your planning.

 

[jmcarp]

Have you considered doing a study of some of the lesser-known architecture along the way? Everyone knows about the grand cathedrals, and there have been learned studies ad infinitum on most of the ones you mention. I am a retired architect, and for me the highlights of walking the Camino Frances were the smaller churches, both Romanesque and Gothic, that are found in almost every town and village. I could name a dozen or more, but in particular you might consider those in Triacastela, Rabanal, O'Cebriero, or Portomarin. Or the lovingly restored Romanesque Iglesia de San Martín in Fromista. These are the churches of the people, not the bishops, cardinals, and kings, and attending Mass in those churches you find yourself setting next to a local farmer or merchant whose ancestors actually built that church with their own hands, and whose family has been baptised, married, and buried there over the intervening thousand years. And the civic architecture of the secular buildings is an education in itself. There are villages in Galicia where, except for an electrical line attached to a building or an automobile parked alongside, you'd think you had stepped back in the 14th century. Don't limit yourself to the famous and the grandiose.