What follows is my attempt to chronicle and recreate a few of experiences in Spain and France this summer for those interested. Focus primarily will rest on history and religion, and in particular the history that lives in the churches and castles that line the pilgrim roads to Santiago Compostella in Spain.

The Muslim conquest of the Holy Land in the Seventh and Eighth centuries caused the traditional pilgrimage to Jerusalem to become increasingly dangerous. As the Middle Ages unfolded, the journey across the Pyrenees and into Spain to the traditional burial place of St. James became the dominant pilgrimage route. The results were dramatic. The first great wave of Christian churches in the Middle Ages sprung up along the pilgrim roads - the age of Romanesque was born. Architecture, spirituality, culture and politics would all be dramatically affected by the great mass of Medieval Christians on the road to Compostella.

Friday, August 14, 2009

The Beginning of the Pilgrim Road

We went to the medieval hill-town of Vezelay. Of the four pilgrim roads that start in various points throughout France and converge into one road at the Pyrenees, Vezelay is the main starting point.

It is a famous church built in the Romanesque style, and many consider it the church to officially usher in the Gothic style with its pointed arched around the choir.

St. Bernard preached the 2nd and 3rd Crusades here, and Richard the Lionhearted and Phillip of France met here to lead their armies to Jerusalem.

Isabel Update: Also, Isabel took her very first steps outside the church. This was not planned. She took about three steps, stopped for a second and then took three more! We were very excited.






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