The Chair of the Camino de Santiago and Pilgrimages, which is promoted by the Department of Culture and Tourism conjoinedly with the University of Santiago de Compostela and the Cathedral, delivered its research award today to the Italian professor Antonella Palumbo, for her unpublished work on pilgrimage throughout Italy at the International Pilgrim Welcome Centre in Santiago de Compostela.
The award was given at the ceremony, which was attended by the director-manager of the Xacobeo, Rafael Sánchez, the director of the Chair, Domingo González Lopo, and the dean of the Cathedral, Segundo Pérez. In the work, its author compares the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela with the pilgrimage to the sanctuary of San Miguel in Monte Gargano, in southern Italy. To grant this recognition, the work’s originality was assessed as well as the special attention given to one of the least known chapters of the pilgrimage along the secondary roads (the tratturi), where there is a heightened presence of chapels dedicated to the Apostle Santiago and the Archangel.
The award given by the Chair consists of an economic boost which will allow the author to continue her research and which will also grant her access to the documents and bibliography present in the Chair’s library, located in the International Pilgrim Welcome Centre in Santiago de Compostela. Antonella Palumbo takes the testimony of Professor Rosanna Bianco, from the Universitá degli Studi de Bari, the winner of the first edition.
To this recognition are added this year’s scholarships which have been granted by this Chair for the first time. This is a study on the demarcation of the Portuguese Way, carried out by the researcher Carlos Manso, and another study on the hospitals of the Camino de Santiago which will allow a mapping of these infrastructures to be done, by Estefanía López.