Address: Parque Bicentenario, Av. Bicentenario 3800, Vitacura · How to get there
Hours: open 24 hours, every day (it is outdoors).
The milestone is a piece of granite placed at regular distances along the Jacobean Route to show pilgrims the right direction and the distance to Santiago de Compostela. Each piece carries two of the best-known symbols of the Camino: the yellow arrow and the scallop shell.
Chile's milestone is on the slope of Parque Bicentenario in Vitacura (Av. Bicentenario 3800), 10,546 km from Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. It was donated by the Xunta de Galicia, it is the southernmost Jacobean milestone in the world, and the only one declared a National Monument. It is one of the points of the Vía de los Andes.
The history of the milestones
In 1986 the Diputación de Lugo installed the first granite milestones of the Camino, designed by the architect Antonio González Trigo and sculpted by Manuel Mallo, known for his work on the Sagrada Familia. The Diputación de A Coruña and the Principality of Asturias soon copied them, and they became a symbol of the Camino. They were trapezoid pieces of granite, 1.10 m high, with the scallop shell carved on them and the number of kilometres left to the Cathedral.
In 2012 the Xunta de Galicia regulated the image and signage of the Camino (Decree 85/2012, of 16 February), a regulation amended by the Order of 5 November 2015. Since then the milestone has been a trapezoid piece of granite with the yellow arrow and the yellow scallop shell on a blue tile, and it is placed roughly every 500 metres along the route.
How the milestone came to Santiago de Chile
- 4 June 2018. Our president, Francisco de Almozara, met at the International Pilgrim Reception Centre in Compostela with the manager of the Xacobeo of the Xunta de Galicia, Rafael Sánchez Bargiela, to introduce the Chilean association. The idea of sending a milestone to Chile was born there, and the Xunta confirmed the donation soon after.
- 29 January 2020. Our president and our director Sebastián Sánchez met with the Conselleiro of Culture of the Xunta de Galicia, Román Rodríguez, together with the commissioner of Xacobeo 2021-2022, Cecilia Pereira, and the new manager of Xacobeo, Isaías Calvo. They brought letters asking to resume the shipment, among them those of the minister Karla Rubilar, the provincial delegate of Santiago Enrique Beltrán, the deputy Karin Luck and the councillor Francisco Salamanca. The shipment was agreed for April 2020, but it was cancelled because of the pandemic and the closing of borders.
- 21 June 2022. The milestone arrived in Chile.
- 25 July 2023. It was installed in Parque Bicentenario in Vitacura.
- 15 November 2023. It was inaugurated.
What it commemorates
The milestone commemorates the 30 years since UNESCO declared the Camino de Santiago a World Heritage Site. In 1993, after the first Xacobeo Year organized by the Xunta de Galicia, UNESCO declared the Camino Francés a World Heritage Site, from the Pyrenees to Santiago Cathedral. It was the first time it declared a route, a category until then reserved for cities or historic sites. In July 2015 the site was extended to the Northern Caminos: the Camino Costero, the Primitivo, the Lebaniego and the Interior Vasco-Riojano, roots of the Jacobean pilgrimage linked to the discovery of the Apostle's tomb in the 9th century. See the UNESCO page .
National Monument
On 29 May 2023, the Council of National Monuments of Chile, by means of Ordinary 2295, declared the "Milestone of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela" in Parque Bicentenario in Vitacura a National Monument, in the category of Public Monument, protected by Law 17.288. The request was accompanied by letters of support from the governor of Santiago, Claudio Orrego; the ambassador of Chile in Spain, Javier Velasco; the ambassador of Spain in Chile, Rafael Garranzo; the dean of Vitacura of the Archdiocese of Santiago, R. P. Roberto Espejo, and the mayor of Vitacura, Camila Merino.
Public Monuments are objects placed in public space to commemorate events, people or groups that have influenced the culture and history of the country.
Minutes of the Council of Monuments session (PDF) National Monument decree (PDF)
The plaque by Cristóbal Corbeaux
The milestone was missing a small copper plaque on the back, which marked Galicia on the map of Europe carved into the sculpture. It was made by the Chilean architect and sculptor Cristóbal Corbeaux: a copper plaque of 8 × 8 cm and 3 mm thick, engraved with a laser.
In it Corbeaux expresses that the Camino is an experience that goes beyond the religious: a path of unity and welcome, where believing and non-believing pilgrims share the route to the Apostle's tomb, accompanied by symbols of Chile.
- Pilgrims: the welcome of the Camino; they accompany and help each other, and form bonds that go beyond beliefs.
- Cordillera: seeing it in the distance is the beginning of the end; crossing it is our first stage of the Camino de Santiago.
- Condor: our national bird, which welcomes, protects and guides pilgrims to their destination.
- Star: the one the hermit Paio saw in the year 813, which led him to rediscover the remains of the Apostle in the forest of Libredón.
See the map of the Vía
Photo albums on Flickr
The Camino de Santiago is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List .
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