Monte do Gozo

San Marcos

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 monte do gozo 'mountain of joy': the hill from where the pilgrim first glimpsed the towers of the Cathedral of Santiago. French pilgrims used to shout “Mont-joie!” on seeing them — a gesture that named the place.

It belongs to the rare Camino toponyms that commemorate a collective gesture of the pilgrims instead of a geographical feature or an owner. The Codex Calixtinus (c. 1140) describes that on reaching this 370-metre hill, French pilgrims shouted “Mont-joie!” —⁠contraction of Mons Gaudii 'mountain of joy'⁠— upon first seeing the silhouette of the Cathedral of Santiago five kilometres away. The Latin form Mons Gaudii was translated into Galician as Monte do Gozo, and the popular French was preserved deformed as Monxoi. The hill, today urbanised with a giant albergue (five thousand beds) and a monument commemorating John Paul II's visit in 1989, remains the first point from which the pilgrim glimpses Santiago — the exact moment when the Camino, after five thousand years from Atapuerca and one thousand from the Codex, finds its destination.

Evolution of the name

  1. Mons Gaudii medieval Latin 12th century
  2. Monte do Gozo / Monxoi Galician from the 13th century

Reflections, to the letter

Climb the last kilometre up to the Monte do Gozo viewpoint. When you reach the top and look west, if the day is clear, you'll see the Baroque towers of the Cathedral of Santiago four and a half kilometres away for the first time. That exact moment is the one that named the hill: French pilgrims shouted “Mont-joie!” on seeing them, and Galician translated it as monte do gozo. One more day.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Glossary

Calque
A literal translation of a compound word or expression from one language to another, preserving its structure. Mons Gaudii → Mont-joie → Monte do Gozo is a perfect calque from Latin into French and Galician.
Attested
A form or word documented in writing in historical sources; opposed to 'reconstructed' (forms proposed by comparative inference but not actually documented).

Sources

  • Codex Calixtinus / Liber Sancti Iacobi, libro V, capítulo XII (h. 1140)
  • Concello de Santiago de Compostela · sección de patrimonio (santiagodecompostela.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. ··· toward the start