Official recognition for 177km route from Oliveira de Azeméis to Valença

[Bradypus]

The Portuguese government have just given official recognition as a Camino path to a route from Oliveira de Azeméis to Valença. Largely following the line of a Roman road. The new status should encourage the provision of support for pilgrims along the way.

Portugal oficializa 177 kilómetros del Camiño de Santiago

El recorrido atraviesa 13 municipios, de Azeméis a Valença

www.lavozdegalicia.es

 

[jungleboy]

I don’t know anything about this but Oliveira de Azeméis is on the Portuguese central route (as is Valença, of course), just south of São João da Madeira. Presumably this new path is completely different from the Portuguese central route, so it could be an interesting alternative route for those walking the CP from further south. Indeed, it seems more practical to think of it as an alternative rather than an entirely new camino. I doubt many people would start or end this route at the (somewhat random) official start and end points, and are instead more likely to incorporate it into a longer camino.

 

[peregrina2000]

Interesting. The Portuguese government, or its tourism agency, is really promoting the opportunities for walking in Portugal. Some of these top down initiatives, like the Rota Vicentina, have been very successful, but some of the officially promoted routes that @jungleboy and @Wendy Werneth have walked seem to be sputtering a bit. Would you agree with that, @jungleboy? The Geira is a bottom-up initiative that hasn’t gotten much/any official support, but seems to be breaking onto the scene a bit. And that’s with competition from the “official” route whose name escapes me, but which sort of seems to be sputtering a bit too.

 

[Bradypus]

Some of these top down initiatives, like the Rota Vicentina, have been very successful, but some of the officially promoted routes that @jungleboy and @Wendy Werneth have walked seem to be sputtering a bit.

Unless there is some serious momentum behind a route which is given concrete expression by providing pilgrim infrastructure then it is likely to remain little more than a line drawn on some official maps. I think the Portuguese government have probably been watching the remarkable growth in numbers on the existing Camino Portugues variants and have calculated that there is still some room for expansion. Portugal's slice of the Camino cake has been getting much bigger in recent years.

 

[jungleboy]

Quite a bit to unpack here!

Some of these top down initiatives, like the Rota Vicentina, have been very successful, but some of the officially promoted routes that @jungleboy and @Wendy Werneth have walked seem to be sputtering a bit. Would you agree with that, @jungleboy? The Geira is a bottom-up initiative that hasn’t gotten much/any official support, but seems to be breaking onto the scene a bit.

Yes, I would agree on all fronts. The RV has indeed been very successful and without having statistics at hand I would assume that it has greater numbers of walkers than any Portuguese camino except for the standard routes from Porto. I think they have just promoted the coastal/beauty aspect very well. To segway to your next point, the recent efforts of the Caminhos do Alentejo e Ribatejo have been to provide a link route from their Caminho Central to the RV, so perhaps trying to cash in (relatively speaking) on the success of the RV as a way of providing an entry point to their own routes. In an interesting conversation I had once, I was made aware that the creators of the southern routes admit that don't really know how to actually promote them, and to whom. I think they thought it might be an 'if you build it, they will come' type of situation but it turned out that they built it and no one came.

And that’s with competition from the “official” route whose name escapes me, but which sort of seems to be sputtering a bit too.

Minhoto (Miñoto) Ribeiro.

Unless there is some serious momentum behind a route which is given concrete expression by providing pilgrim infrastructure then it is likely to remain little more than a line drawn on some official maps. I think the Portuguese government have probably been watching the remarkable growth in numbers on the existing Camino Portugues variants and have calculated that there is still some room for expansion. Portugal's slice of the Camino cake has been getting much bigger in recent years.

I agree, but what I'm not seeing is that despite this increasing slice of cake, that pilgrims really want to expand out of the standard routes from Porto. I don't think more routes is the answer. There are already plenty of routes in Portugal but the pilgrim mainstream has no idea about them. Pilgrims walking the Francés or another route in Spain might hear of the Portuguese camino (as if there were only one), and then might become aware that there's a coastal and inland option, and that's about it. I think those same pilgrims see doing a camino in Portugal as a one-off alternative to a Spanish camino, or at most going twice to experience both central and coastal. Meanwhile the CPI, the new southern routes, the Torres, the Geira and the Zamorano-Portugués have almost no one on them.

As examples, @trecile and @Camino Chrissy come to mind. They are 'serial pilgrims' so they are the type of people who would be good targets for walking some of these other Portuguese routes. But AFAIK, despite both having walked repeated caminos in Spain, they have only done one trip each in Portugal. It would be interesting to see their thoughts if they read this. Do you see Portugal as a 'one and done' pilgrim destination? Are you interested at all in the more remote Portuguese routes or would you rather just go back to Spain and walk there?

 

[dougfitz]

Presumably this new path is completely different from the Portuguese central route, so it could be an interesting alternative route for those walking the CP from further south. Indeed, it seems more practical to think of it as an alternative rather than an entirely new camino. I doubt many people would start or end this route at the (somewhat random) official start and end points, and are instead more likely to incorporate it into a longer camino.

It looks to me like it it might be a combination of existing routes, the Central route into Porto, the Caminho da Costa/Senda Littoral leaving Porto, and then across to the Central. It might be intended to promote investment along that general line rather than to create some fundamentally new route alignment.

 

[jungleboy]

It looks to me like it it might be a combination of existing routes, the Central route into Porto, the Caminho da Costa/Senda Littoral leaving Porto, and then across to the Central. It might be intended to promote investment along that general line rather than to create some fundamentally new route alignment.

In that case it seems pretty pointless to me!

 

[dougfitz]

In that case it seems pretty pointless to me!

I don't get it either. I tried to see if I could find the formal announcement from the Portuguese Government to see if that gave details of the route, but my search skills were not up to the task.

 

[Bradypus]

I don't get it either. I tried to see if I could find the formal announcement from the Portuguese Government to see if that gave details of the route, but my search skills were not up to the task.

I think this is the one: https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/portaria/445-2023-799214998

 

[dougfitz]

I think this is the one: https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/portaria/445-2023-799214998

View attachment 161196

That looks like the Central Route to me, or very clise to it.

 

[Lleslie]

After my friend moved ahead to Porto from Albergaria A Velha due to injury ( great stay at the albergue - Kristina is an amazing host) I was intending to stay at Moinho Gracia where we had pre booked. Arrived at 1130 so continued on to try and catch up with others in our 'family' but called it quits due to fatigue in Oliveira De Azemeis. Finding no available/affordable accommodation I bused to Santa Mairia de Feira as recommended by Kristina and stayed in a lovely dorm room right in the old town. Wished I had more time to explore this town with its monastry and castle on the hill above and that I knew about this new variation - I walked the road back to the closest point of the caminho, about 3km, and waited for a couple of pilgrims I knew who had stayed in Sao Joao da Maderia. I had been told that the albergue there had closed but apparantly it was open!

 

[jungleboy]

That looks like the Central Route to me, or very close to it.

It says it’s the central in the map legend.

 

[dougfitz]

It says it’s the central in the map legend.

Thank you. I missed that.

 

[Lleslie]

I thought it was going to be a new route going through the town of Santa Maria da Feira