The story behind the sculpture on Alto de Pardon - Camino de Santiago

One of my favorite places on the Camino de Santiago is about 7 miles after the city of Pamplona - a high mount called the Alto de Perdón - the Mount of Forgiveness.   The hike up to this high point, and the sculpture that awaits, with the windmills surrounding it and the city of Pamplona in the distance, is breathtaking.  I have climbed up this hight on the first day on three different Camino hikes, and have never been disappointed. 

On the American Camino facebook page, I found this explanation of this sculpture, which came from a book - The Lord of the Camino de Santiago - by Jean Mitchell Landham.  I had never heard of this explanation before, and it is so interesting.  

“The sculpture exhibits a small history of pilgrims and the pilgrimage…through various stages of development, from the beginning in the Middle Ages up to the present day, in the form of a procession. Of the twelve pilgrims, the first pilgrim appears to be searching for the route and symbolizes the beginning of interest in the pilgrimage. Next is a group of three that depicts the growth or rise in popularity of the Camino. These three are followed by another group depicted as merchants or tradesmen on horseback that symbolize the medieval era of merchants hawking their wares to the pilgrims. Spaced away from them is a solitary figure that characterizes the decline in pilgrimages due to political, religious, and social unrests from the mid-fourteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. At the very end of the procession are two modern-day figures depicted to show the renewed interest and rise in popularity of the pilgrimage in the late twentieth century.”

These photos were taken by me on the Alto de Padrón in January 2015.