Camino del Sureste

[mondocao]

There is an important route missing between those included here, which is Camino del Sureste, linking Alicante and Santiago (also Murcia) over 1.200 kilometers.
Camino de Levante is an invented and not historical route created by a couple of ladies in Valencia while in XV and XVI centuries there were pilgrims passing by Camino del Sureste.
A Royal Postman, Pedro Juan Villuga, included in 1543 the route of Sureste in his repertorio of the Royal Trails, as some kind of Michelin Guide of that time. In this repertorio, avalable in the internet, you may find Camino Francés messured in leagues and Camino Real from Alicante to Santiago, but not such Camino de Levante. From Valencia people used to make pilgrimage using another route, known as Ruta de la Lana, which links in Burgos to Camino Francés. That's a beautiful one through the mountains.
Camino de Levante result to be only a good business for the creator ladies, which sell quite expensive a guide that they have done moving by car. You may find free a well done guide of Camino del Sureste (FREE!) in the web page of the Asociación de Amigos del Camino de Santiago de Alicante.

 

[Peter Robins]

Ivar, I think you can put the Sureste in the same subforum as the Levante; the 2 routes are largely the same.

The Levante was created first and was walked by an enterprising CSJ member soon after creation, which was why the CSJ covers it rather than the Sureste.

It would make things much easier if the 2 routes were combined into one, with links from the different cities.

 

[mondocao]

PRobins, maybe you don't understand well the meaning of the Camino. This is not about who, where and why was "created" a Camino. We follow historical paths, not those created by someone. The coincidence of those routes in portions does not mean that they are "the same". One existed 5-6 centuries ago and the other has been "created" some years ago by some willing to have their own path. The people that research the history of Camino (I belong to several Confraternities of Camino) try to recover the ancient trails of the pilgrimage. By my own door pass both Levante and Sureste but my family have been seeing the pilgrims coming centuries ago from South East Spain, not Valencia. We had a Hospital of Pilgrims 100 meters from our home and a Posada where the pilgrims came to rest. I don't need to "create" a Camino. It existed hundreds of years before me. So Levante was not created before. It is the result of a personal invention and also the desire of make business selling a guide instead of sharing it will all in the internet. A big difference: Levante was created to avoid 100 per cent the Camino Francés. Sureste makes what was rational: to meet Francés in Astorga. Look a map. Levante goes south before going north. Makes any sense? Pilgrims were not stupid and walked straight, not making big detours.

 

[Peter Robins]

se hace camino al andar!

Pilgrims in former times started from where they lived, using the road network of the time; more or less any old road will have been used by some pilgrim at some time. Most modern pilgrims can't or don't want to do this. Many of these old roads are now busy highways which the modern pilgrim on foot will want to avoid. In addition, most of the contributors to this forum do not live in Spain; many do not even live in Europe. So what the people in this forum are looking for is a route that will broadly follow an old road and visit historically interesting places, but which is safe and pleasant for the modern walker, and is also easy to follow for those who do not know the area, preferably by being waymarked and/or having an easily obtainable guide. Both the Levante and the Sureste do this. They are both based on the old roads from the east coast to Toledo, and then north. Like all the modern pilgrim routes, they are modern creations even if based on historic roads. Essentially the modern routes are 'marketing packages' that make things easier for the modern traveller. They all have to start somewhere, but that starting point is generally pretty arbitrary.

I would agree that the Levante going south, then west, is not very logical, but it still follows old roads, and I can't see any problem with people following it if they wish.