The Way of Sant James

• The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, with sponsorship from the Post Office, is organising the exhibition 'The way to Santiago. A contemporary experience of pilgrimage' which is scheduled for this weekend at the Camino Film Festival Boston
• It is made up of photographs and audiovisual material that portray the pilgrim's heritage and reflect the pilgrim's journey along a universal and open Camino de Santiago.
• The number of Americans on the pilgrimage route is increasing, cementing itself as the third international market on the Camino de Santiago.

Santiago de Compostela, 12 October 2018

The Camino de Santiago reinforces its presence in the United States from today and over the coming months thanks to the exhibition The way to Santiago. A contemporary experience of pilgrimage, the initiative promoted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism with sponsorship from the Post Office that shows the richness and diversity of the contemporary experience of pilgrimage through different photographs and audiovisual material.
The exhibition, the work of photographer Manuel Valcárcel, will be on display for the first time this weekend at Emerson College on the Harvard Campus in Boston as part of the activities in the first edition of the Camino Film Festival, an audiovisual initiative in which films about the pilgrim phenomenon will be shown. The next stop will be on 18 October at the Cervantes Institute in Chicago, where it will remain until January.


The images and audiovisual material that form part of The way to Santiago. A contemporary experience of pilgrimage portrays the heritage, landscape and the pilgrims themselves in permanent contact with nature and the history of the pilgrimage route. They also reflect the pilgrim's encounter with themselves, with other pilgrims, with fellow pilgrims, with the local population and within the framework of a universal and open Camino de Santiago.

Growing internationalisation

This exhibition is part of the promotion and cultural dissemination actions surrounding the pilgrimage phenomenon that are very much taken into account in the Master Plan of the Camino de Santiago, which includes measures to promote initiatives that help position Galicia in the international field through the Camino de Santiago, its main resource.

This exhibition will help reinforce awareness of the Camino de Santiago among Americans, one of the most important international buyers contributing to the pilgrimage route. In recent years, the United States has become the third foreign market where the most pilgrims come from, only behind Italy and Germany. So far this year, the number of American pilgrims is growing at a rate of almost 6% compared to last year, exceeding 16,000 pilgrims.