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Walking the Via de la Plata

The Silver Route

in Andalucia

The Via de la Plata is an ancient pilgrim route, it’s longer and less well-known and therefore less well-travelled than the Camino de Santiago. It begins in Andalucia, in the capital of the region, Seville and follows the Portuguese border around to northwest Spain.

The route was already well-used as a trade route and cultural highway long before the Christians began to walk it in pilgrimage to St. James.

The Romans and the Moors trod this road as the most accessible means to the north of Spain, so much so that it enabled the conquering forces of the Vandals, Visigoths and then the Moors to travel and conquer northern Spain at an incredible pace.

The Moors widen the original road to enable four carriages to travel side by side, yet a few hundred years later the army of the Catholic kings came from the north to recapture the lands of the south in the Reconquista by the same easy moving route.

Disappearing road

The Via de la Plata because of its position is not so accessible by the northern European, who favoured the route from France so much that it became known as the Camino Francés. The Via de la Plata is 1007 km long and only around 2,000 people walk it every year as opposed to the more popular northern route which sees around 70,000 pilgrims a year.

Many pilgrims like to walk with a scallop shell on their person, a symbol from the days when pilgrims would walk to Santiago, collect scallop shells from the beaches of Galicia and festoon them around their person on the walk home.

The scallop shell can be found as a decorative feature on camino markers, churches and houses along the route.

Starting in heart of Seville on Avenida de la Constitución, the west side of the cathedral is the Santiago Peregrino and apostles carved in the stone doorway. Look out for the yellow markers or scallop shells to find your way out of the city.

The Via de la Plata walking route in Andalucia

Seville
Camas
Santiponce
Guillena
Castilblanco de los Arroyos
Almadén de la Plata
El Real de la Jara

The Via now crosses into Extremadura where it splits just after Zamora, one path joins the camino francés and the other goes to the northwest through Ourense.

A great resource for anyone thinking of walking the Via de la Plata is this book by Ben Cole and Bethan Davies full of useful insights, hostels to stay in along the way, directions and maps.