Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss how a new and innovative pilgrimage route; The Fjord Pilgrim route along the Western coast of Norway is formed within the ideas of caminoisation and how heritagisation also is important within the shaping of a new pilgrimage route. (214 tegn).

Paper long abstract:

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how caminoisation and heritagisation permeate the creation of the Coastal Route (Kystleia), also called the Fjord Pilgrim Route, along the West Coast of Norway. This route is the latest addition to the packet of seven official pilgrim routes called St Olav Ways, all having the city of Trondheim as their final destination. These roads also have status as The St Olav Ways pilgrimage and is modelled on the Camino pilgrimage, and in the same way has position as European Cultural Route. The Fjord Pilgrim Route deviates from the other routes in combining walking and travelling by boat, the last by using old and slow technologies like sailing and rowing. Aspects of caminoisation is thus part of such a route, and we will argue that caminoisation is about requisites, ideas and values, and the impact of this is clearly relevant for the Fjord Route.

The route comprises a string of local places selected because of specific attributes, described in terms of religious and cultural traditions, interesting pasts or local memory; all examples of heritagization. A certain degree of place making is part of the making of such a route, and it is of interest to discuss the significance of pilgrimage and caminoisation within such processes.