Lavacolla

Camino Francés · Camino del Norte · Camino Primitivo

A Coruña · La CoruñaGalicia

Here Camino Francés, Camino del Norte and Camino Primitivo converge. It is one of the points where the pilgrim shares the way with those arriving by another route.

From the Galician lavar + colla 'wash the neck, wash the parts': the place where medieval pilgrims washed their bodies in the local stream before entering Santiago de Compostela. The Codex Calixtinus (12th century) describes the practice as a rite of preparation.

The Liber Sancti Iacobi —⁠or Codex Calixtinus, compiled around 1140 by the Cluniac Aimery Picaud⁠— describes in its Book V the stream of Lavamentula, where 'French pilgrims, for love of the apostle, strip and wash not only their lower parts, but also, removing their clothes, their whole body, cleansing themselves of the dirt of the road'. The medieval Latin toponym Lavamentula alludes explicitly to the hygienic-ritual practice; the Galician form Lavacolla, derived from lavar + colla 'neck' (or, in euphemistic sense, 'the lower parts'), preserves the same idea in its own vocabulary. The practice disappeared in modern times, but the toponym remains — one of the few of the Camino that commemorates a daily act of the medieval pilgrim.

Evolution of the name

  1. Lavamentula medieval Latin (Codex Calixtinus) 12th century
  2. Lavacolla Galician from the 13th century

Reflections, to the letter

Before climbing Monte do Gozo and seeing the cathedral towers for the first time, medieval pilgrims would stop at this brook to wash. The name tells the act without modesty: from Vulgar Latin lavamentula, “wash the sex” — the blunt form the Codex Calixtinus (12th century) uses when describing the rite in detail: pilgrims would undress and wash their entire body before entering the sanctuary. The present form Lavacolla is the euphemistic evolution, with colla (from the Latin collum, “neck”) covering the original referent. Today the place is better known as the site of Santiago's international airport: the last toponym of the Camino before the cathedral coincides with the first that pilgrims arriving by air see, no longer on foot.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Glossary

Vulgar Latin
The Latin spoken by the common people of the Roman Empire, distinct from classical literary Latin; the ancestor of all Romance languages.

Sources

  • Codex Calixtinus / Liber Sancti Iacobi, libro V, capítulo VI (h. 1140)
  • Concello de O Pino · sección de patrimonio parroquial (concellodopino.gal)
  • López Alsina, F. — La ciudad de Santiago de Compostela en la Alta Edad Media

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Camino Francés

  1. Santiago de Compostela
  2. Monte do Gozo
  3. Lavacolla
  4. O Pedrouzo
  5. Arzúa
  6. Ribadiso
  7. Castañeda
  8. Boente
  9. Melide
  10. ··· toward the start