Camino Primitivo: the oldest route few people walk

The Camino Primitivo is the oldest pilgrim route in existence. Almost nobody walks it.

While hundreds of thousands of pilgrims head to St. Jean Piedde Port every year, a much smaller group quietly starts in Oviedo — and walks the route that predates the Francés by centuries. The Primitivo was the original Camino, walked by King Alfonso II in the 9th century to visit the tomb of Saint James before the more famous route even existed.

It is also, by most accounts, the hardest of the main Camino routes. The terrain through Asturias and Galicia is relentlessly hilly. The paths are wilder and less maintained. Some stages are genuinely remote. The weather in the north of Spain does not cooperate.

And yet the pilgrims who walk it consistently rate it among the most beautiful routes in all of Spain. Ancient forests. Mountain passes with views that go for ever. Villages so small and unchanged they feel like stepping back several centuries. And almost no crowds — just the path, the silence, and the occasional other pilgrim who knew what they were getting into.

The Primitivo is not for a first Camino. But for those who've walked before and want something rawer, more demanding, and more rewarding — it's waiting.

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