People have been making long treks on the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James) since the ninth century primarily as a pilgrimage to a shrine in Santiago de Compostela where the bones of St. James were said to have been buried. The pilgrimage soon became the most widely known and most traveled Christian medieval pilgrimage. It was customary for returning pilgrims to carry with them a Galician scallop shell found at nearby Cape Finisterre as proof that they completed the journey. The legend passed down for over a thousand years says that the remains of St. James were miraculously carried on a boat made of cement and steered by an angel to Spain and placed at the site of the present Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

Since medieval times, the popularity of the pilgrimage would vary depending on conditions in Europe such as times of peace, times of war, the Spanish Inquisition, or the inspiring words of the current Pope. In the last 30 years or so, there’s been a dramatic surge of people walking the Camino. According to the Pilgrim’s Office in Santiago, 260,000 people walked the Camino in 2015.

“Pilgrim: A traveler that is taken seriously.” — Ambrose Bierce