Unified Camino Signage in Galicia

[ivar]

This article in La Voz de Galicia the other day, mentions that the Camino signage in Galicia will now be unified and look the same on all Caminos in Galicia.

This will start this fall and they hope to be finished by the end of 2019.

 

[grayland]

Now, if the shell (direction indication) conformed to the rest of the route outside of Galicia (except Bilbao)...it would be simpler for the poor brain tired Pilgrim.

 

[wayfarer]

I agree, I always felt the "hub" of the shell should point towards Santiago, not the fingers, indicating that all Camino's lead to Santiago.

 

[Tia Valeria]

As I read it the shell will be a symbol and the arrow the waymarker. Confusion during the change-over maybe? Hopefully the km markers will be proofed against souvenir hunters!

 

[Whalleyranger]

It's a nice idea but surely there are more important things to spend the money on?

 

[fraluchi]

It's a nice idea but surely there are more important things to spend the money on?

Reading the article I had the impression that somebody at the Xunta woke up one morning with the brilliant idea to invent the wheel!

 

[peregrina2000]

I will never forget my first camino, where there were very few of these "hitos" and we relied primarily on painted yellow arrows. Lots cheaper, lots fewer materials, and MUCH more aesthetically pleasant.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

I am inclined to agree with Fra Luchi. Every couple of years a bureaucrat realizes his department's gotta spend some money in order to get more money next year, so they invent a new "system" of arrows or shells or waymarks. It's supposed to make things more clear, and cut out the "creative" arrow-painting employed by bar-owners and hoteliers who re-route the camino to better fill their pockets. Within a couple of km. of my house I can count seven different types of waymarkers, products of seven generations of make-work projects. They all point the same way, down the same path.
I wish they'd use the money to dig and maintain a few pit toilets. But nobody asks me. And what politician or bureau wants to pioneer that?

 

[naplesdon]

I love the old time signage!

 

[Stephen Nicholls]

Now, if the shell (direction indication) conformed to the rest of the route outside of Galicia (except Bilbao)...it would be simpler for the poor brain tired Pilgrim.

Is there nothing we can do to make this happen?

 

[Stephen Nicholls]

As I read it the shell will be a symbol and the arrow the waymarker.

... in which case, to avoid confusion [or, should I say, even MORE confusion} couldn't the scallop shell simply point upwards?

 

[Tia Valeria]

Upwards - or downwards! Heaven or Hell???

 

[grayland]

I wish they would just use the time honored yellow arrow (pointing in the proper direction, of course).
The are many locals along all of the various routes that simply put up shells with no idea that the direction of the shell has meaning. They are simply saying that "this is the Camino" without any intent of showing the direction.
It is a unneeded confusion. The arrow is simple and easy to understand.
I suspect that the average person tasked with deciding these things have not walked a camino. At least it seems that way at times.

 

[jmcarp]

If my feeble knowledge of Spanish is correct, the wording under the shell symbol in Ivar's original post explains that the orientation of the shell is intended to be uniform in all the signage, and that only the arrow will change to show the direction of the route. I can see the pros and cons of this approach, but since there is so much confusion and misunderstanding regarding the orientation of the shell in signage throughout the Camino, I must confess that I see the logic of standardizing the shell orientation and letting the arrow do the directing.

Of course, when the shell alone appears, one could easily deduce that it is somehow pointing the way. With all the various uses of the shell symbol throughout the the entirety of all the Camino routes, it would be impossible to get every locality or jurisdiction to change their signs and symbols. Besides, I don't think that everyone knows, understands, or perhaps even cares about the symbolism of the lines of the shell converging at Santiago. That's why the use of the arrow is simple and easy to understand. Now, if we could just put a stop to all the defacing of Camino signage by vandals and adding or re-orienting arrows to point to a certain bar or albergue, all would be well.

 

[C clearly]

Before I first walked on the camino, I was a bit worried trying to make sense of the various directions that the shell might be placed in. I was pleased to find that I was able to manage in spite of some inconsistencies. Perhaps they could put the money toward a long moving sidewalk (like at many airports), at least from Sarria.

 

[jmcarp]

...Perhaps they could put the money toward a long moving sidewalk (like at many airports), at least from Sarria.

Yeah, but if someone took the moving sidewalk, they wouldn't be walking (unless, like at the airport, there's a sign that directs "riders" to keep right and "walkers" to keep left). Of course even walking on a moving sidewalk would effectively shorten the distance walked, so the moving sidewalk would have to be lengthened to somewhere around Ponferrada to make it 200km long for the moving sidewalk walkers, and even perhaps as far as Carreón de los Condes for those moving sidewalk riders. But I guess that would only apply to those who wish to receive a Compostela.

 

[naplesdon]

This was one of my favorites and I did not stage the snail for the photo.

 

[Saint Mike II]

Standardised markings across ALL Caminos would be great. Also a special thanks to whoever painted all the yellow arrows along the Camino through Burgos. It certainly made life a lot easier!!

 

[peregrina2000]

Frankly I think that unleashing another whole set of signage will just add to the "signage garbage" that currently plagues a lot of caminos. If you're going to put up a new set of signage, then please take down the many old sets (Rebekah counts seven different types close to her house alone). But I'll bet the budget for this endeavor doesn't include that part.

 

[fraluchi]

Hopefully the Xunta manages to sort out the signage mess on the Camino Portugués before Porriño and decides upon a method of fining locals who deface, remove or redirect signage from the "official" Camino.