Camino de Santiago
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50 free Camino De Santiago trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Camino de Santiago is a web of pilgrim routes that has drawn walkers across northern Spain for more than a thousand years. Kings, saints, thieves and film crews have all left stories along it, and many of the best ones sound too strange to be true. This quiz turns the best Camino de Santiago fun facts into questions: how the pilgrimage began, what the waymarks and rituals mean, which towns and landmarks line the main routes, what pilgrims eat and where they sleep, and what happens when they finally reach the cathedral. It suits anyone planning the walk, pilgrims who want to relive the road, and armchair travelers who like their history with a few surprises. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you finish knowing the road to Santiago far better than when you set out.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Spain, 'El Camino de Santiago' is also a popular name for which feature of the night sky?
The Milky Way
The Milky Way was said in a common medieval legend to be formed from the dust raised by travelling pilgrims. At night it seems to point the way west along the route.
Q 02Which animals live in the cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada on the Camino de Santiago?
Chickens
Chickens, a live cock and hen, are kept in a henhouse inside the cathedral because of a legend in which two roasted birds came back to life to clear a pilgrim wrongly accused of theft.
Q 03The Botafumeiro, which swings through Santiago Cathedral at up to 68 km/h, is a giant what?
Incense burner
An incense burner, the Botafumeiro is set swinging by eight robed men called tiraboleiros, who haul on its rope until it sweeps the length of the transept.
Q 04Which US envoy, later president, followed the Camino de Santiago backwards in 1779 to reach Paris?
John Adams
John Adams landed in Galicia because his ship was leaking and went on overland from there. He later wrote that he always regretted not finding time to visit the shrine itself.
Q 05Where did the Codex Calixtinus, stolen from Santiago Cathedral in 2011, turn up a year later?
In a garage
In a garage belonging to a former cathedral employee, who was sentenced to ten years in prison for the theft. One book of the 12th-century manuscript has been called the first tourist guide.
Q 06Which color are the painted arrows that guide walkers along the Camino de Santiago?
Yellow
Yellow arrows began with a parish priest, Elías Valiña, who personally marked the whole French Way in 1984. He is said to have used paint left over from marking a main road.
Q 07A fountain built in 1991 beside the Camino de Santiago at Irache pours which drink for pilgrims?
Wine
Wine has been made at Irache for centuries: the monastery beside the fountain doubled as a pilgrims' hospital, and a medieval guide praised the area's bread and drink.
Q 08Which emblem, used as a waymarker on the Camino de Santiago, do pilgrims wear to show who they are?
A scallop shell
A scallop shell became the pilgrim's badge because medieval travellers carried one home from the Galician coast as proof that they had finished the journey.
Q 09Tarta de Santiago, the cake said to reward pilgrims who finish the Camino, is based on which nut?
Almonds
Almonds must make up at least a third of the filling for the cake to carry its protected EU name. The top is dusted with sugar around a stencil of the Cross of Saint James.
Q 10Which actor carries his son's ashes along the Camino de Santiago in the 2010 film The Way?
Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen was directed by his real son, Emilio Estevez, who wrote the part for him and also plays the son. Sheen himself had suggested Michael Douglas or Mel Gibson for the lead.
Q 11Which Atlantic headland do many pilgrims walk on to after reaching Santiago de Compostela?
Cape Finisterre
Cape Finisterre, whose name means 'end of the earth', lies about 90 km beyond the cathedral. The walk there is believed to be older than Christianity.
Q 12What is the shortest walk into Santiago that still earns a pilgrim the Compostela certificate?
100 km
100 km is the rule for walkers, which is why so many set out from towns just beyond that mark. Cyclists have to cover twice as far.
Q 13Santiago Cathedral declares a Holy Year when St James's Day, 25 July, falls on which day?
Sunday
Sunday feast days come round at gaps of five, six and eleven years. In those years pilgrims can enter the cathedral through its Holy Door.
Q 21Which Galician town is the most popular starting point for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago?
Sarria
Sarria sits just far enough from the cathedral for walkers to qualify for the certificate, and its bus and rail connections make it the closest convenient place to begin.
Q 22The Camino Primitivo, the oldest route to Santiago de Compostela, begins in which Spanish city?
Oviedo
Oviedo was the capital of King Alfonso II of Asturias, reportedly the first pilgrim, who set out from his court to see the newly found tomb and built the first shrine over it.
Q 23Which city on the French Way has a World Heritage Gothic cathedral holding the tomb of El Cid?
Burgos
Burgos laid the warrior and his wife Jimena at the centre of its cathedral, though he was first buried in a monastery outside the city. Building began in 1221 in the French Gothic style.
Q 14Saint James the Great, the apostle whose shrine ends the Camino de Santiago, began in which trade?
Fisherman
Fisherman was the family trade: James was at the shore of the Sea of Galilee with his father Zebedee and his brother when Jesus called them to follow him.
Q 15Which royal couple founded the pilgrims' hospital in Santiago that is now a luxury hotel?
Ferdinand and Isabella
Ferdinand and Isabella ordered it after making the pilgrimage themselves in 1486. The hotel keeps up the old hospitality by giving free meals to the first pilgrims who arrive each day.
Q 16Which mountains do pilgrims cross on the French Way's first stage from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port?
The Pyrenees
The Pyrenees crossing ends at Roncesvalles, the first place to rest on the Spanish side. The whole French Way typically takes at least four weeks on foot.
Q 17Roncesvalles, where the French Way enters Spain, is famed for the death in 778 of which warrior?
Roland
Roland died with the rearguard of a Frankish army that Basque fighters cut off and wiped out in the pass. His last stand inspired the oldest surviving major work of French literature.
Q 18Which is the first Spanish city that French Way pilgrims reach after Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port?
Pamplona
Pamplona grew prosperous on pilgrim traffic from the 11th century. Today it is better known for the running of the bulls at its San Fermín festival each July.
Q 19The Kumano Kodō, a sister pilgrim route of the Camino de Santiago since 1998, is in which country?
Japan
Japan has its own ancient pilgrim trails ending in Wakayama, the region that signed the sister-road pact with Galicia. Walkers who finish both routes can claim a dual-pilgrimage certificate.
Q 20Which novelist turned his own walk along the Camino de Santiago into the 1987 book The Pilgrimage?
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho made the walk in 1986 and published the book a year before his best-seller The Alchemist. He later helped turn it into a 1997 adventure video game.
Q 24Which Spanish city's cathedral on the Camino de Santiago is famed for nearly 1,800 square metres of stained glass?
León
León pushed Gothic design to the limit, shrinking the walls to make room for windows. Most of the glass dates from the 13th to 15th centuries, a rarity among medieval churches.
Q 25Which military order was given Ponferrada in 1178 to protect Camino de Santiago pilgrims?
Knights Templar
The Knights Templar castle still dominates Ponferrada, a town whose name means 'iron bridge' after a river crossing reinforced for pilgrims in 1082.
Q 26The Portuguese Way of the Camino de Santiago begins in Lisbon or in which other city in Portugal?
Porto
Porto pilgrims head north across five main rivers, ending with the Minho, before entering Spain and reaching Santiago by way of Pontevedra.
Q 27The Northern Way of the Camino de Santiago follows the coast of which body of water west from Irún?
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay keeps the route cooler in summer than the inland paths. Medieval pilgrims are believed to have chosen it to avoid territory then under Muslim rule.
Q 28The English Way of the Camino de Santiago starts from Ferrol or from which other Galician port city?
A Coruña
A Coruña and Ferrol were where pilgrims from Britain and Scandinavia came ashore after sailing south. Traffic was heaviest when conflict with France made the overland roads risky.
Q 29The Vía de la Plata, a Camino route running north through Salamanca, starts in which city?
Seville
Seville is the start of a route whose name misleads: 'Plata' is thought to come not from the Spanish for silver but from an Arabic word for a paved road.
Q 30When Al-Mansur sacked Santiago in 997, what did he make Christian captives carry to Córdoba?
The church bells
The church bells were added to Córdoba's great mosque, together with the gates. When the city fell in 1236, Muslim captives were made to carry them north again, this time to Toledo.