It had been brewing in his mind for some time but finally this week it moved from a vague and hazy concept to concrete and direct action.
Andrea Guzzoletti leaves Barga today on the first leg of a voyage which should end, if all goes well, in four, maybe five weeks at Santiago in Spain.
He is attempting to walk the 900 kms of the Camino de Santiago.
Back in 2009, Andrea was already heavily involved in a voyage, not his own but that of Italo Calvino and his writings imagining Marco Polo and his visits to China which Andrea evolved into his music compositions – Invisible Cities (article here).
Now four years later, he is off on his own voyage of discovery.
We will be following him every step of the way as he posts images, his thoughts and his position on the map as he makes his way over the Pyrenees, across Spain to his final destination – the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain.
The earliest records of visits paid to the shrine dedicated to St. James at Santiago de Compostela date from the 9th century, in the time of the Kingdom of Asturias. The pilgrimage to the shrine became the most renowned medieval pilgrimage, and it became customary for those who returned from Compostela to carry back with them a Galician scallop shell as proof of their completion of the journey. This practice was gradually extended to other pilgrimages.
In fact, the statue of San Rocco in Barga Giardino has prominently on his left shoulder, a large shell. An extremely interesting article by Frank Viviano explored that avenue with links between the Black Death and San Rocco.
Andrea will be taking his own shell which has been decorated with an image of one of the bas relief figures to be found at the Duomo in Barga (article here)
Andrea Guzzoletti talking (in Italiano) about the Camino de Santiago
Don Federico talking (in Italiano) about the Camino de Santiago
Camino de Santiago
The Way of St. James or St. James’ Way – In Spanish: El Camino de Santiago, is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried.
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
The Way of St. James was one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during medieval times, together with Rome and Jerusalem, and a pilgrimage route on which a plenary indulgence could be earned;[1] other major pilgrimage routes include the Via Francigena to Rome and the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Legend holds that St. James’s remains were carried by boat from Jerusalem to northern Spain where he was buried on the site of what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela.
The Way can take one of any number of pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. Traditionally, as with most pilgrimages, the Way of Saint James began at one’s home and ended at the pilgrimage site. However a few of the routes are considered main ones. During the Middle Ages, the route was highly travelled. However, the Black Death, the Protestant Reformation and political unrest in 16th-century Europe led to its decline. By the 1980s, only a few pilgrims per year arrived in Santiago. Later, the route attracted a growing number of modern-day pilgrims from around the globe. The route was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in October 1987; it was also named one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.
Scallop symbol
The scallop shell, often found on the shores in Galicia, has long been the symbol of the Camino de Santiago. Over the centuries the scallop shell has taken on mythical, metaphorical and practical meanings, even if its relevance may actually derive from the desire of pilgrims to take home a souvenir.
Two versions of the most common myth about the origin of the symbol concern the death of Saint James, who was martyred by beheading in Jerusalem in 44 CE. According to Spanish legends, he had spent time preaching the gospel in Spain, but returned to Judaea upon seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary on the bank of the Ebro river.
Version 1: After James’ death, his disciples shipped his body to the Iberian Peninsula to be buried in what is now Santiago. Off the coast of Spain, a heavy storm hit the ship, and the body was lost to the ocean. After some time, however, it washed ashore undamaged, covered in scallops.
Version 2: After James’ death his body was mysteriously transported by a crewless ship back to the Iberian Peninsula to be buried in what is now Santiago. As the ship approached land, a wedding was taking place on shore. The young groom was on horseback, and on seeing the ship approaching, his horse got spooked, and horse and rider plunged into the sea. Through miraculous intervention, the horse and rider emerged from the water alive, covered in seashells.
The scallop shell also acts as a metaphor. The grooves in the shell, which meet at a single point, represent the various routes pilgrims traveled, eventually arriving at a single destination: the tomb of James in Santiago de Compostela. The shell is also a metaphor for the pilgrim: As the waves of the ocean wash scallop shells up onto the shores of Galicia, God’s hand also guides the pilgrims to Santiago.
The scallop shell also served practical purposes for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. The shell was the right size for gathering water to drink or for eating out of as a makeshift bowl