The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela has been, for more than 1,200 years, the most deeply lived spiritual and cultural journey since the Middle Ages, which obtained recognition from the European Parliament, which designated it the First European Cultural Itinerary, and from UNESCO, which declared it a World Heritage Site.
The Traslatio Route or Xacobea maritime-river route through the Arousa Sea and the Ulla River commemorates the arrival in Galicia, by sea, of the body of the Apostle Santiago the Greater, after his martyrdom in Jerusalem.
Ancient Christian traditions say that after his martyrdom and beheading at the hands of Herod Agrippa, the disciples of James, Theodore and Athanasius, collected his decapitated body and carried it from the city of Jaffa, south of modern-day Tel Aviv throughout the Mediterranean and the Iberian Atlantic coast, entering the coasts of the Ría de Arousa and the Grove Peninsula.
Following the bed of the Ulla and Sar rivers, they reached the port of Murgadán in Iria Flavia, near the current town of Padrón. There they tied the boat to the “Pedrón”, a Roman altar that is currently preserved in the Parish Church of Santiago de Padrón and, after a series of miraculous events, Santiago would have finally been buried on Mount Liberum Donum, in a place vaguely designated as Arcis Marmoricis.
This iconography of the apostles in the boat, led by an angel and guided by a star, is reproduced on the current Municipal Seal of the Padrón City Council and also on a coin found in the Adro Vello necropolis.
ORIGIN OF THE TRASLATIO ROUTE
The Traslatio by the Arousa Sea and the Ulla River was born in 1963 at the initiative of the Fundación Ruta Xacobea Mar de Arousa e Ulla, a recognized entity for the promotion of the Camino de Santiago, and was declared of cultural and Galician interest by the Xunta de Galicia in the year 1999.
For its part, the San Vicente Nautical Club also promotes this route, issuing the necessary nautical licenses to obtain the institutional document “TRASLATIO XACOBEA”, issued by the Padrón City Council and the Xacobea Mar de Arousa e Ulla Route Foundation.
The annual commemoration of the “Traslatio”, promoted by the Fundación Ruta Xacobea do Mar de Arousa e Río Ulla, takes place at the end of July or beginning of August and consists of a very colorful maritime-river procession, which departs from different ports of the Arousa estuary bound for Pontecesures and Padrón, with parades of decorated boats and great public participation.
This demonstration has the support of the Xacobeo, port authorities, the parish of Santiago de Padrón, and shipowners and fishermen in the area.
THE VIA CRUCIS THROUGH THE AROUSA ESTURY
A highlight of this Route are the 17 stone crosses – almost all located at the bottom of the estuary and on the two banks of the Ulla – that mark the route, forming the only maritime-river way of the cross in the world. The first two crossings that mark the Traslatio Route are on the island of Malveira Grande and on the northern tip of the island of Cortegada. Almost all of them have traditional lines, and their crosses show the crucified Jesus Christ on one side and the Virgin on the other.
