Alfonso's Whatever

I detoured from the start of my camino to visit this UNESCO site built by King Alfonso II in the 9th Century. It's now called a church. The guidebooks say he built it as part of his palace. But a local guy on the scene says no one knows why he built it. But it should be part of the Camino Primitivo, which is best translated as the Original Camino, not as the Primitive (although it is that, too). When the remains of St. James were supposedly (and exceedingly improbably) found in Galicia, Alfonso built the first Camino to Santiago de Compostella so that hordes of pilgrims could walk to see St. James's remains, and in the process provide enough Catholic boots on the ground to discourage the Moors from trying again to complete their conquest of Spain (Alfonso had beaten them off once, barely).

Why the Primitivo?

Well, because the more famous Camino de Santiago (the Camino Francés to us peregrinos) has become too famous, and therefore too populated.  This won't be a problem with the Camino Primitivo, which proceeds from Oviedo in a southwesterly direction until it joins the "main" Camino in Melide, a hard day's march from Santiago de Compostella.  Although the Primitivo attracts a goodly number of hardy souls in the summer nowadays, I expect it to be fairly empty at this time of year.