In launching the Ways towards Santiago de Compostella, as the first European cultural route, the Council of Europe inaugurated both an approach and a methodology. The approach knew several phases, little by little extending research and increasing the number of partners involved.

In 1987 the Council of Europe had established three objectives: the identification of these ways in Europe, their signaling by a common logo and the co-ordination of a programme of cultural activity in co-operation with governmental, regional, local or non-governmental authorities.

identification

The work of identification was undertaken under the auspices of a group of specialists coming from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, themselves working in connection with experts and specialised agencies from various countries. A general map was established and used as a basis of work for later studies.

The symposium of Bamberg (Germany, 1988) organised in collaboration with Deutsche Jakobus Gesellschaft, that of Viterbe (Italy, 1989), in collaboration with the Italian Center of Compostellan Studies, and that of Porto (Portugal, 1989), in collaboration with the Almeida Garret circles, made it possible to progress with the studies and identification of the Ways of Santiago. Also worthy of notice is the work developed in Switzerland by the Inventory of Historical Routes (IHR). A very original methodology enabled the detailed identification of Oberstrasse or the higher route, which came from Germany and took the pilgrims up to Einsiedeln to join the transversal routes. Later research was devoted to the transversal routes coming from Austria and Hungary, from Poland or the Baltic regions. Similar work is undertaken with assistance from academics and associations from Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Portugal, just as with the maritime ways. In May 1994, the Way that led to Mount Saint Michel in the English Cornwall was inaugurated as part of the cultural route towards Santiago de Compostella. In France, identification work was carried out and continues in a way still too dispersed, through the initiative of pilgrims associations generally working with the French Federation of the Pedestrian Randoneers. Various sections of ways were opened or will be opened (Geneva - Puy, Cluny - Puy, the Breton way beginning at Locquirec, the Alsatian way, ways in Poitou-Charentes, Provencal ways...).

signaling

A logo was established by the Spanish graphic designers Macua and Garcia-Ramos at the request of the Council of Europe. It comprises three different readings: the shell symbolises the traditional emblem of pilgrimages towards Santiago, the idea of convergence of the ways and that of dynamic movements towards the West. The logo itself is integrated within two other panels containing the initials of the Council of Europe and the caption "European Cultural Route".

An instruction manual comes with this logo, published in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Public Affairs and Transport, and it provides the technical data necessary for the installation of the beacon. Unfortunately this logo is not always used, certain associations preferring their own beacons.

revitalisation

In 1993, jubilee year, the Spanish government asked the Council of Europe to prepare a meeting in Strasbourg on the revitalisation of the ways. In the conclusions to this meeting, the Council of Europe stressed the importance of the "structuring" function of the cultural routes. It is indeed at the same time a question of revitalising an identity marker in which the local population can recognize itself and by which it can be mobilised to take cultural and economic actions and to accommodate the tourists by creating real conditions for dialogue and mutual respect between the "visitors" and the "visited".

Several lines of work were retained:

• to constitute a network that carries and develops the diversified actions of the route and represents a regional relay to guarantee legal protection and to maintain the quality of the ways;
• to co-ordinate and evaluate permanently the actions undertaken;
• to improve information by creating a network of the existing databases and information tools;
• to keep all those working on the ground informed about the evolution of all cultural routes and of their methodology of implementation.

One of the most significant points is the role the ways played within the framework of social and economic policies, national or regional. The ways must constitute an engine tuned to the local economy. They represent a shaft connecting the imaginary to social reality, a concrete place of occupational and professional training, a ground for job creation.

development and research

The increase in knowledge about the pilgrim phenomenon, in a multidisciplinary spirit, has been the poor relative in the past decades. The publication of the first assumptions of researchers was not really followed by critical studies. The multiplication of initiatives aiming to create the ways still too often leads to the reproduction of stereotyped speech, without true effort for open and diversified interpretation. In France, the thesis for a doctorate in history published by Denise Péricard-Méa in 2000 renewed the vision of the cult of Santiago and re-situated the pilgrimage towards Compostella within a larger framework by showing the importance of many other sanctuaries, which joined the evolution of the Council of Europe's approach. This work should be used as a basis for revitalising these sanctuaries and for new local initiatives.

It makes it possible to punctuate better each stage towards Compostella in a discourse linking local and specific interpretation to its European context. The best knowledge of the real or legendary pilgrims that it proposes and the opening towards the modern and contemporary times constitute approaches that appear rich in interest and new prospects to explore the phenomena of the meeting of European cultures.