Pilgrimage roads of Sant Joan del Penyagolosa. Architecture and ethnography

Abstract

Present study is focused on analysing the compact and disperse architecture linked to the still existing pilgrimage routes of Penyagolosa Mountain. The study examines those buildings directly linked to the pilgrimage routes, from the historic centre; stately homes, religious and fortified buildings until rural disperse constructions related to extinct or endangered crafts: villages, cottages, wineries, mills, wells and caves. The article explains how the project for the recovery of the pilgrimage pathways has encouraged citizen participation through neighbourhood meetings. The article will present the methodology developed to reconstruct the lost sections of the paths and how the scattered architecture of the 17th Century, when its maximum spread, is identified and related to the religious devotion to the shrine of Penyagolosa. The work of inventory and catalogue that the article exposes is an important part of the record that is being documented for the declaration of Monument of Cultural Interest (B.I.C.) at a regional level, Cultural Landscape from the European Union and World Heritage nomination.