Last weekend, Camino Korčula was opened – a new pilgrimage route on the Adriatic and another section towards Santiago de Compostela
From Friday to Sunday, over 100 participants from Croatia, but also from Bosnia and Herzegovina, France and Portugal gathered on Korčula and in three days walked over 60 kilometers of new pilgrimage paths on the Camino Korčula. This Camino Korčula route was organized by the Brotherhood of St. Jakov and local tourist boards (Korčula, Lumbarda, Smokvica, Blato and Vela Luka).
Camino Korčula is a unique circular island path, which through picturesque sections allows participants to get to know Korčula by exploring the rich cultural and natural heritage of the island, but also themselves and getting closer to God, walking through untouched nature in the silence of winter island days. We socialized for three days through various activities, prayers, exhibitions, presentations, blessings and always with the intercession of Saint James.
The beginning of this beautiful island route is in front of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Korčula.
Camino Korčula Day 1 (Friday, December 1, 2023) Korčula – Lumbarda – Žrnovo. 19 km
It’s Friday, and the weather couldn’t be better. Ideal for walking. The temperature is 18 degrees (it is the 1st of the twelfth), it is slightly cloudy with a light wind. About 70 pilgrims gather in front of St. Mark’s Cathedral. Some get to know each other, and many fly into each other’s arms, looking forward to meeting again. There are old “caminos”, people who constantly meet on one of the Croatian or international Camino routes, but also new pilgrims who are excited because they don’t know what awaits them.
With the distribution of promotional bags with Croatian pilgrimage passports of the Brotherhood of St. James and a beautiful shell of St. James prepared for us by the organizers, after a joint prayer we set off on the way to Lumbarda. The road leads along the coast, along the promenade along the beaches. It is a rare opportunity for many of us to experience the island in winter when there are no tourists, and the weather is still ideal for spending time in nature. It is a beautiful experience when we feel not only closer to nature, but also to God and to each other. We notice nature in all its wildness and beauty, without noise, crowds and everything that we are used to during the summer months on the Adriatic. All along the way, people send us their prayer intentions, the so-called Camino prayer arrows, and led by our Mirko, we stop at certain places near churches and chapels and pray for those intentions.
From the promenade we ascend to the beautiful chapel of St. Anthony, where we take a short break for refreshment and prayer.
We continue on through charming villages, full of luxuriant citrus trees, lemons, oranges and tangerines ready for harvesting, while on the field roads we are tempted by the fruits of planica and rose hips. We move on roads (concrete, gravel) and field roads (gravel, stone, grass).
We stop briefly in Lumbarda for refreshments and to collect stamps… We slowly get to know each other. There are us from all over Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. With laughter and refreshments in Lumbarda, we move on, and mobile phones tirelessly “work” trying to capture as much interesting and beautiful things as possible.
This route has a total of 14 stamps that are collected in the pilgrim’s passport. Each one is metaphorically or stylistically linked to the place where it is located.
We continue on the roads of fields to the parish church in Lumbarda, where the parish priest Don Vlado Markić is waiting for us in front, and sends us off with a blessing after a short prayer and conversation.
Continuing our way, we soon reach Žrnovo, where the 1st day of the Camino Korčula weekend ends. Buses take us back to Korčula, where we attend mass at 5:30 PM in the Cathedral of St. Marco. After the mass, there was adoration in front of the Holy Altar Sacrament, which was beautifully led by the parish priest accompanied by the youth choir, who created a special atmosphere with their melodious sound.