Una vía para un camino: La karraria antiqua en los itinerarios jacobeos portugueses

Karraria antiqua is the name of a road mentioned in Portuguese medieval documents that became a main highway in the medieval and post-medieval road network in the region of North Portugal. Its origin goes back to Roman times, when this road was a secondary highway in the imperial road network, for it did not connect any major cities of that era. In medieval times, however, this road was very important and became the major highway for Jacobean pilgrims through the North of Portugal. Its track was generically maintained at the end of the 20th century, when today's Central Portuguese Camino (Caminho Central Português) was structured. This camino represents today the second most important Jacobean route in terms of the number of pilgrims arriving at Compostela. In this article, I want to highlight the elements that formed medieval landscape along this highway and how close the actual Camino is to what we believe to be the first Roman road built here. Our primary objective is to deepen our knowledge of the historical dimension of a Jacobean route that is so fundamentally important to the cult of Saint James (yesterday and today), in the heart of Portugal's North region.