Walk the route to Santiago de Compostela

The year 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of the registration of “Paths of Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle in France” on the List of Unesco World Heritage. The opportunity to highlight this original hike.

The program : explore sacred places, be in contact with nature, contemplate, meditate... In this space of freedom, a little outside of time, you walk at your own pace, far from the mental burden of everyday life.

Religious tourism? This is about spirituality in the broad sense. Believer or not, the iconic route to Santiago de Compostela is open to everyone. 

A little history…

Santiago de Compostela, practiced from the beginning of the 9th century, is the third great pilgrimage of Christianity after those of Jerusalem and Rome.

historic route, the main route which goes down from Saint-Martin de Tours to Santiago de Compostela, runs along the Vienne before deviating from it to reach Poitiers and the Ligugé abbey.

There are five major routes in France. Historic route, the Via Turonensis or Tours route crosses the Vienne. Coming from the Saint-Jacques Tower in Paris and after having venerated the relics of Saint-Martin in Tours, the pilgrims entered Poitou. 
The complete story of the path

Welcome in Grand Châtellerault, on the GR 655 leading to Santiago de Compostela and passing from Port-de-Piles to Vouneuil-sur-Vienne (approximately 47 km).

IN GRAND CHÂTELLERAULT

Let's travel through our countryside on marked and secure circuits...

À Port of Batteries we enter the Vienne department by the bridge which spans the Creuse. It is a historic road called “Seuil du Poitou” where the Roman road, national road, motorway, TGV line, Vienne and Creuse rivers intersect…

At the entrance to the village Les Ormes we discover on the left the remarkable facade of the old sheepfold, on the right the castle of the Age of Enlightenment and a little further the ancient Horse post. Then we reach the church square and the old market halls to catch up with the watercourse.

À Chatellerault, a stopover town on the route, the path enters the historic center via rue Bourbon where shells anchored in the cobblestones lead to the Saint-Jacques church. Walkers enter in particular to admire a famous statue, that of a pilgrim Saint-Jacques, symbol of the route to Tours.

We then follow the Vienne, admiring the famous Henri IV Bridge.

Two options are then possible from Châtellerault.

Option 1: via Cenon-sur-Vienne
We reach Poitiers via the GR. The Way of Saint-Jacques follows in the footsteps of the Romans and Charles Martel, passing along the sites of Gallo-Roman theater of Old Poitiers and the chessboard of Moussais the battle of Poitiers (732).

Option 2: by Naintré
The road to Santiago passes through the forest here. From Naintré, we join the Roman road via the hills which dominate the Clain valley. This variant is marked in yellow and blue.

Then we join Poitiers which has just obtained the label “ Commune Halte – Chemins de Compostela in France » and whoseSaint-Hilaire-le-Grand church (11th century) is inscribed on the World Heritage List under the “Chemins de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle en France”.

You can also admire the church Notre-Dame-La-Grande, its Saint-Pierre cathedral in the city ​​of a hundred bell towers.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Contact: Friends of the Camino de Santiago in Vienna
Tel: 07 81 38 15 23 or [email protected]
https://www.compostelle-vienne.org
Open hours at the Hôtel Sully in Châtellerault every third Saturday of the month

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