The Primitivo is the camino, but not as we know it.
This camino is quiet, subdued, a little rough around the edges even. It is far from the madding crowds that occasionally mar the Camino Frances – the most popular pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela, and therefore occasionally chock-a-block with walkers.
I like the almost 200-mile-long Camino Primitivo precisely because of its less-trod character. You’d be forgiven for assuming that the Primitivo was, well, primitive. It’s not, of course. The Spanish word translates best into English as “original” because it is the original camino – or so the people of Asturias will tell you.
A long and winding history
It all goes back to Alfonso the Chaste who, in AD791, ascended the throne of the Kingdom of Asturias, aged 31. An austere fellow say the histories, he married, but apparently never consummated the union (and how do they know, one might ask), devoting himself instead to living as a Christian aesthete and ruling for a thumping 51 years.
Alfonso settled in Oviedo (or Uviéu in Asturian) and declared the city the capital of Asturias, which it remains to this day. From here, in 813, he set out on his horse for Galicia, on the other side of the mountains, having been told by the Bishop of Flavia that the remains of the apostle St James the Great, had been discovered there, in a place known as the field of stars.
James is to Spain what Patrick is to Ireland – both brought Christianity to the respective countries, ridding them of the heathen influence of pagans. And so the spot in Galicia where the bones were allegedly found quickly became Santiago de Compostela, where Alfonso mandated the construction of a chapel to hold the remains. It is said that Alfonso became the first pilgrim to the site, which quickly became a pilgrimage destination for devotees of the saint.
The fact that this fortuitous discovery coincided with La Reconquista, Catholic Spain’s ultimately successful war to drive the Moors from Iberia, is perhaps more than a little coincidental.
Setting out
While there are fewer churches along the Primitivo than the more developed, nearly 500-mile-long Camino Frances, what they lack in number they make up in ecclesiastical significance.
In the Cathedral of San Salvador, for instance, the nave houses a giant stone urn reputed to be one of those that held the water Christ turned into wine at the wedding in Cana. Also in the cathedral is a shroud in which Christ’s head was allegedly wrapped after his death.
The cathedral will issue you with your must-have credencial, or camino passport – to be stamped by each albergue stayed in and essential for getting your compostela certificate in Santiago.
Strike out from Oviedo in the early morning, guided by yellow arrows and the bronze scallop shells set into granite pavement flags. The way soon leads into the mountains, the valleys below blanketed in early morning mist; the hedgerows drenched in dew.
Asturias is associated with a lot of old industries. The Romans mined there for gold; while its mountains were exploited for coal and iron ore throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. But those days are gone and, now, the region is reinventing itself successfully as a natural paradise.
On the road
In the calm, early summer morning on the Primitivo, nature feels intensely close.
Walking along dirt tracks or narrow country lanes, drink in the sounds and smells of the countryside. Aspects of country life that used to be commonplace in the UK and Ireland – dung-spattered tracks, the sound of mooing in the distance and the clockwork humming of milking machinery in barns, many of them pleasingly old wooden structures – are still part and parcel of the everyday here.
The hedgerows and trees are alive. Birds sing; bells tinkle in fields; water trickles along ditch streams and cocks crow in farmyards. The upland meadows are filled with colour. In the late spring and early summer, the fields are not yet cut for hay and so wild flowers thrive and sway gently in the breeze. As the sun gets higher and the temperature rises, the insects stir and chatter.
This part of Spain is largely untouched by mass tourism. That said, you are never far from a cafe, which might be a conventional venture in a village or the work of an enterprising farming family, cashing in on the passing flow of pilgrim walkers. The same is true of restaurants (most with simple pilgrim menus of starter, main course, dessert and half-bottle of wine for €10) and somewhere to stay: an albergue (perhaps €10 a night) or small hotel (for maybe €30).
The Primitivo traverses the mountains east to west. The walking can be tough, but is not intimidating for the averagely fit person. The greatest exertion is between Pola de Allande (552m above sea level) and Puerto Palo (1,146m), a 5.5-mile journey, but that should be well within the competency of most averagely fit walkers.
Near Salas, visit the derelict monastery of San Salvador at Cornellana, founded in 1024 and now being restored. Next day, on the way to Tineo, traversing the shoulder of the Sierra de Tineo, pause regularly and drink in spectacular views.
On the way to Pola de Allande, stop at the derelict Santa María La Real de Obona, a 350-metre detour from the centre of a lush forest. This vast 13th-century cut stone and stucco former Benedictine monastery would make an extremely good pilgrim hostel.
In Pola de Allande itself, indulge in a meal at the Hotel La Nueva Allandesa where Señor Antonin will ply you with an Asturian feast: a starter of black pudding mousse and toast and thick cabbage and potato soup, plus a side dish of homemade sausages; followed by two main courses: a circular, two-inch tall rough-cut mousse of vegetables, and tennis ball-sized meatballs wrapped in cabbage leaves and smothered in an orange-coloured sauce – washed down decanter of country red wine.
From Pola de Allande, the route will take you on a difficult but rewarding stretch of the camino, offering views of the beautiful Nisón river valley, en route to the small parish of La Mesa. Then it’s onwards again, the following day, to Grandas de Salime – home to the fantastic Grandas de Salime Ethnographic Museum – at the border between Asturias and Galicia.
From Asturias, onwards
With Asturias behind you and Santiago ahead, Primitivo enters its Galician stretch: passing from Grandas de Salime to Fonsagrada, O Cádavo and on to Lugo. Take time to appreciate the spectacular Roman walls that encircle Lugo, and later in Melide, where the Primitivo merges with the Camino Frances, be sure to have some pulpo – boiled octopus – washed down with white wine.
Thus fortified (no, really, you must!), you are now but a leisurely three-day stroll to Santiago through an undulating, eucalyptus-blanketed landscape with villages, small towns and one terrific monastery (Samos). The Way will be more crowded because of the Camino Frances pilgrims and the Asturian mountains may feel far behind you.
But Santiago beckons! And with it, the joy of arrival, of walking, maybe hand-in-hand with someone special, under a stone archway with the sound of Galician pipes ricocheting through the air, and into that magnificent cathedral square …
There really is nothing else quite like it.
Peter Murtagh is co-author, with Natasha Murtagh, of Buen Camino!: A Father-Daughter Journey from Croagh Patrick to Santiago de Compostela (Gill Books, Dublin)
Inspired to embark on your own Camino? Find out more at Turismo Asturias
