Cathedral of San Salvador, Oviedo to Grado
Origin
- Distance
- 25.2 km
- Climb
- 380 m up, 540 m down
- Ground
- 76 to 350 m
- Time
- 6 to 8 hours
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Underfoot
- urban, paved, dirt, forest
Where this day sits on the Camino Primitivo
Above, the highest and lowest ground of each of its 11 stages. Below, the word each day is given.
From open-pilgrimages: each stage's highest and lowest ground and its interior theme.
The day
You begin where Alfonso II began. The Cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo was his palace church, and the Cámara Santa where you can stand today is the same 9th-century chapel he built. In 814 — within a year of the discovery of the apostle's tomb at Iria Flavia — this king walked out the cathedral doors and west into the mountains to visit the new shrine. He had no Camino Francés to follow because there was no Camino yet. He made the path. You leave Oviedo's old town through the suburbs, climb out of the river valley, and find yourself in green Asturian countryside before midday. By afternoon you cross the Nalón river and enter Grado — Grau in Asturian — a small market town with an unhurried pace that sets the tone for the route ahead.
What pilgrims often meet here
- Touching the Cámara Santa before leaving Oviedo Cathedral
- Walking out through Oviedo's old town in the early light
- First Asturian forests — eucalyptus and oak in mixed stands
- Realising how green Asturias is — much greener than imagined
What does it mean to walk a path that someone else made by walking it first?
The ground
The light
Sunrise and sunset in Cathedral of San Salvador, Oviedo depend on the day you walk.
Walk it with Pilgrim
Pilgrim doesn't carry the Camino Primitivo as a route yet. You can still walk it with the app in Wander mode, speaking what arises and keeping it on your phone.