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The Pilgrim´s Passport
As most travellers, who keep souvenirs from all their journeys over the world, the pilgrims of the Route of Santiago treasure "la Compostela", an official certification given in Santiago de Compostela. It is granted by the Archbishopric or by Santiago´s Chapter to those who make the pilgrimage for religious or spiritual reasons. Through it, the Church recognises the pilgrims´devoutness.

In order to get this certification, you should make part of Santiago´s Route on foot (at least 100km), on bicycle or on horseback (200 km) and be able to prove it. In order to prove it, you can use the Pilgrim´s Credentials, a document where should be the stamps and signatures from the parish churches, hospices, refuges or representatives of the villages along the Pilgrimage.
If you do not have this document, you can keep a route diary, with the stamps and signatures from each stage of the Route.

The Credentials is a pilgrim´s passport given to those travellers who make the pilgrimage, either on foot, on bicycle or on horseback. You can get it before you start the journey -in Parish Churches and Brotherhoods- or in any of the Associations of the Route´s Friends.

With this document you can go in hospices, where you will get the stamps that prove the passing of the pilgrim through that stage of the route. Hospices also give Credentials, but you should get yours in the first hospice where you stop.