Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes the changing strategies of belonging to a “hostel-village” along the camino de Santiago. It is part of a research project that focuses on the impact on the local population of the pilgrimage to Fisterra, a route of St. James pilgrimage which is not recognized by the Catholic church.

Paper long abstract:

What does it mean to live in a 100-inhabitant village where every day 50 pilgrims sleep, eat and rest? This paper presents an on-going research project that focuses on the impact on the local populations of a route of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela which is not recognized by the Catholic church: The camino that starts in Santiago and finishes at the sea-shore, in Fisterra (literally "the end of the world"). This part of St. James pilgrimage has been promoted in the last ten years and, since then, continuing until "the end of the world", where the sunset faces the Atlantic, without finishing the pilgrimage in Santiago, is became increasingly popular.

The goal of this paper is to analyze the changing strategies of belonging to the village of Olveiroa, where most of the pilgrims on this route sleep the second day after leaving Santiago; with a special focus on how the remodeling of the village, where stone houses and horreos -traditional grain deposits— have been reconstructed as rooms which are part of a pilgrims hostel. In addition, the narratives of the transformation in the landscape and the impact of pilgrims in Olveiroa daily life will be analyzed. This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Olveiroa and the Santiago pilgrimage to Fisterra.