Hybrid networks sacred itineraries towards Santiago & Finisterre

Abstract

Hybrid Networks explores in detail the slow geography of the French Camino network in northwest Spain, giving an account of the network at the scale of the lberian Peninsula and Europe. This old itinerary is a hybrid of infrastructure, architecture, landscape and urbanity that linked the End of the World for the Romans, Finisterrae and Santiago de Compostela, with the rest of Europe during the Middle Ages. Today, in a world that urbanizes very rapidly and that shrinks at high speed as well, this thesis argues that the Camino's hybrid network could shed light on a sensible way of occupying, recycling and symbolizing territory through artifacts and infrastructure across scales. In the introductory chapter this study is positioned within major contemporary discussions around big scale and infrastructure in urbanism. This overview's purpose is, to prepare the ground and move beyond, an understanding of the camino normally portrayed as a sacred medieval artifact in the lberian Peninsula, towards that of a network at the scale of Europe. Also, to establish sorne relationships between major infrastructural works today and this millenary network. 1 then briefly introduce the history of the camino before explaining the motivations, aims, and method for my own study, and conclude the chapter with a summary of the camino scholars and works that have informed previous research. With the latter, 1 reveal the areas on the topic that are sti ll to be covered such as an actual approach that goes beyond the necessary Medievalist studies that have informed the camino's recen! protection. Chapter 1 guides the reader along the historical path of the camino network in combination with a series of cartographical analyses of the network over time. 1 explain how the two tempo invention of the remains of St. James has both times been followed by thousands of pilgrims making their ways to Compostela, and describe the institutions and infrastructure that made this possible. Together with "a line made with time and walking," 1 bring the reader through the evolution of the different networks that c reated the Pilgrim Network of Caminos in Europe, ending by looking closely at the principal branch of the network in the lberian Península, the French Camino. At both scales, 1 unravel the role of the camino as a geo-political strategy, a project of territorial control to reconquer, as well as conquering, lost and newly discovered territories in Europe and the Americas. Chapter 2 places the camino in its theoretical and geographical context, pilgrimage as an ubiquitous global phenomenon, and I explain the state of the global pilgrimage to Santiago today in comparison to other major pilgrim infrastructures in the world. This comparison is made possible by revealing the archetypes of pilgrimage as well as sorne similarities in contemporary pilgrim/walking protocols today. 1 then examine a broader literatu re on walking to contextualize the camino within major philosophical discourses on the relationship between mind, space, motion, and mapping; a dialogue which provides directions for understanding how the camino should be studied today. Chapter 3 takes a cartographical journey along the camino's ten stages in Galicia and analyzes that journey through the lens of a visual, tectonic language of the camino experience. Each stage is diagrammed and analyzed in parallel as 1 guide the reader along the line towards the end of the world. Each c ity-stage is portrayed as a fifty year lapse overlay. The lessons learned from this travel are explained in the conclusion to the dissertation that follow in Chapter 4 where 1 explain that the camino has become an example for hybrid slow lines that could be used in modern metropolises to counterweigh the speed at which other fast lines are consumed.A palimpsest and panopticon with the potential of being re-linked at the scale of Europe, a territory that once again starts to rise the walls that pilgrimage was able to erase.