Every pilgrimage route began the same way: someone walked somewhere for a reason, others followed, and the path wore itself into the ground. The Camino de Santiago is the most famous example, but it is far from being the only one. Across Europe, routes dedicated to local saints, regional histories, and forgotten traditions crisscross landscapes that the Camino Francés never touches. Some of them are ancient; some have been recently revived; all of them offer what every pilgrimage offers — he particular kind of attention that only comes when you are going somewhere on foot with no option to hurry.
As we have highlighted before, the Camino de Santiago is not one road but a continental network — a web of routes that can begin, in theory, at your own front door, and that stretches from Romania to the Atlantic. The routes below belong to that same tradition of walking toward something sacred, even when the destination is not Santiago. They are quieter, less crowded, and in some cases more demanding than the well-worn paths of northern Spain. They are also, for those reasons, worth considering.
The Way of Saint Olav — Norway
St. Olav Haraldsson was a Viking king who united Norway and brought Christianity to Scandinavia, fell in battle at Stiklestad in 1030, and was canonized the following year. His tomb at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim — the northernmost Gothic cathedral in the world, known as Cor Norvegiae, the heart of Norway — became the most important pilgrimage destination in the Nordic countries throughout the Middle Ages. Nine different routes converge on it, totaling some 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) across Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The main route, the Gudbrandsdalsleden, runs 643 kilometers (400 miles) from Oslo through the Gudbrandsdal Valley, over the Dovrefjell Mountains, and down to Trondheim — the same road that almost every king of Norway traveled in the Middle Ages, and that Olav himself walked in 1021 and 1024. The St. Olavsleden begins in Selånger on the east coast of Sweden, crosses into Norway, and covers 580 kilometers (360 miles) to Trondheim. Best walked between June and September, when the mountain passes are snow-free and the long Nordic light makes every hour feel like afternoon.
The Way of Mary Magdalene — Provence, France
According to a tradition rooted in medieval Provence and still very much alive in southern France, Mary Magdalene arrived by boat at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer on the Camargue coast, evangelized the region around Marseille, and spent her final years in prayer in a cave high in the Massif de la Sainte-Baume — a grotto still tended by Dominican friars, where pilgrims have been climbing since the 13th century. Her relics are venerated in the Basilica of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, considered the third vault of Christendom after the Holy Sepulchre and St. Peter's tomb in Rome. The official pilgrimage route covers 222 kilometers (138 miles) in ten stages, winding through the Camargue wetlands, the limestone hills of Provence, and the forests of the Sainte-Baume massif, from the Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer to the Basilica. A shorter five-day version runs from Marseille to Saint-Maximin, covering just over 100 kilometers (62 miles). The feast of Mary Magdalene falls on July 22 — but the route is finest in September, when the Provençal heat has eased and the lavender fields have been cut.
The Hemma Pilgrimage Trail — Austria
St. Hemma of Gurk — also known as Emma — was born around 980 as Countess of Friesach-Zeltschach, raised at the court of Emperor Henry II, and widowed young when her husband died returning from a pilgrimage to Rome and both her sons were murdered by miners whose execution they had tried to prevent. Rather than seeking revenge, she gave her fortune to the Church, founding two Benedictine monasteries — Gurk Abbey and Admont Abbey — and dying in 1045. She was canonized by Pius XI in 1938 and is the patroness of Carinthia, invoked for safe childbirth and the healing of eye diseases. Her tomb in the 100-column Romanesque crypt of Gurk Cathedral has been a pilgrimage destination since the 11th century, and Pope John Paul II visited in 1988. The Hemma Pilgrimage Trail connects her two foundations in seven stages, running approximately 800 kilometers (497 miles) from Admont in Styria through the Alps to Gurk in Carinthia, passing through some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in central Europe. A shorter route starting from Slovenia follows the historic Carniolan pilgrimage path documented since 1607. The trail can be walked in sections, each one ending at a monastery that offers accommodation to pilgrims.
The Camino de Santo Domingo de Guzmán — Spain, France, Italy
St. Dominic de Guzmán, founder of the Order of Preachers, was born in Caleruega, a small town an hour south of Burgos in Castile, in the late 12th century. He lived there until the age of seven, when his parents sent him to study with his uncle, the archpriest of Gumiel de Izán — the town where his vocation to the priesthood crystallized. He went on to study theology in Palencia, was ordained at Osma, and eventually founded the Dominican Order in southern France before dying in Bologna in 1221. The Camino de Santo Domingo de Guzmán connects all these places — from his birthplace in Caleruega, through Gumiel de Izán and El Burgo de Osma, north into France and the site of the Order's founding at Prouille near Fanjeaux and Toulouse, and finally east through Carcassonne to Bologna, where his relics rest in the Arca di San Domenico, carved by Nicola Pisano and completed by a young Michelangelo. A shorter version, suitable for a long weekend, runs from Caleruega to Gumiel de Izán — a manageable introduction to a route that, in its full extent, crosses three countries and the full arc of a founding saint's life.
The Tagus Way — Portugal
The Tagus Way — Caminho do Tejo — is one of the five official pilgrimage routes to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima, and it is the most popular among international pilgrims. It begins at Lisbon's Sé Cathedral, crosses the hill of São Jorge and the ancient Alfama district, and follows the river Tagus north through the fertile floodplains of the Ribatejo — past Santarém, the Gothic capital of Portugal, the castle of Almourol rising from its island in the middle of the river, and the limestone peaks of the Serra de Aire and Candeeiros — before arriving at the Cova da Iria in Fátima, where Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in 1917. The route covers 143 kilometers (89 miles) in five stages, and a large portion of it coincides with the Portuguese Camino de Santiago, offering the rare possibility of walking two famous pilgrimage routes simultaneously. The Tagus never leaves your sight for long; the river is a constant companion, marking distance and direction in a landscape that changes slowly and rewards patience. The Fátima credential — the Peregrino dos Caminhos de Fátima — is available to all who complete the route.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed and edited by the Aleteia editorial team, in compliance with EU AI Act Article 50(4).
