The Way of Santiago, or Jacobean Route, runs through the entire north of Spain, beginning at the French border, and is possibly the best known itinerary of entire Spain, and also the one that has been studied and written about most. From the Middle Ages on, it has been used as a religious pilgrimage route to the city where presumably the remains of Saint James the Apostle are located, the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela.

Many people from all places of Europe walked towards the borders of the known West, entering the Iberian Peninsula through the Pyrenees Mountains. During their advance, they visited temples loaded with relics, and received the attentions of local villagers.

After a decline of popularity of this millenarian path, the second half of the XXth century has seen a resurge of the pilgrimage phenomenon, and the towns and cities that cross the old French Way throughout Navarre, La Rioja, Castile and Leon, and Galicia are promoting and adapting to this new type of tourism, which is motivated partly by religious beliefs, but also by the search for the art of numerous Romanesque churches, culture, sport or beautiful landscapes.

Travellers can enter Spain from France by two different routes through the Pyrenees: Roncesvalles or Somport, itineraries that converge in Puente La Reina, in Navarre. From there, the way advances towards the West, crossing important cities and enclaves like Logroño, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Burgos, Fromista, Leon, Astorga, Ponferrada, Villafranca del Bierzo and Sarria, and in all of these the traveller can rest in free hostels to regain his strength. After the long walk one arrives, finally, to Santiago de Compostela, and still more to the west in Finisterre ("the end of the Earth") and the Atlantic Ocean.