Santiago, along with John the Evangelist, was the son of Zebedee and was a fisherman until Jesus called him to be an apostle. Because of its passionate and impetuous has been called "Son of Thunder." Tradition identifies him as the apostle who evangelized the Iberian Peninsula. However, in Palestine where he died. Herod Agrippa, king of Judea, to silence protests from religious authorities, to please the Jews and give a warning to the Christian community, the figure chosen as representative and sentenced him to death by beheading. It becomes so in the first apostle martyr. Tradition says that James was conveyed to the land evangelized and buried at the end northwest of the peninsula, the area of the current Santiago Compostela.

At the beginning of the century, around the year 82, IX was discovered the tomb of the Apostle in Galicia. Tradition has it that a hermit named Pelayo, observed for several successive nights about glare or lighting mysterious that resembled a shower of stars over a mound. Impressed by the vision, appeared before the bishop Diocesan Teodomiro to communicate the fact. The bishop looked the phenomenon reported by the hermit. A strong glow illuminated the place where, among the dense vegetation, would find stone coffin in which lay three bodies identified like James, and his disciples Theodore and Athanasius. The first detailed account that remains on the discovery Concordia is Antealtares, 1077.

A Following the discovery, the tomb has become a point of Pilgrimage across the European continent. The road was defined then basically using the many Roman roads unite different parts of the peninsula. But with the impressive stream of people had to provide the infrastructure Way necessary for the care of the pilgrims, and settled hospices, hospitals and cemeteries were created, they rose bridges, built churches and monasteries were set abbeys and, most importantly, were founded many cores population around the route, providing a historical legacy and art so important that even today it is impossible to assess. In the fourteenth century began a steep decline, caused both by the disasters that hit these places (especially the Black Death) as the numerous wars in which he was involved the continent.

In 1878 Pope Leo XIII issued a Bull confirming the authenticity of the remains of the Apostle who had been Rediscovered after being stored to prevent looting almost three centuries earlier. This, together with the discovery of the tomb Teodomiro in 1949, revives interest in the Camino de Santiago. Since the seventies of the twentieth century, began a resurgence of Way, thanks to government support, visits Pope to Santiago in the eighties and the renewed effort Church, the development of multiple associations and guilds and Statement of Heritage. In recent years numbers of pilgrims are on the rise continued.