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Wise Pilgrim APPThree kilometers from the center of Finisterre, the lighthouse at Cabo Finisterre marks the point beyond which medieval Europeans believed there was nothing. The Romans called it finis terrae. For pre-Christian pilgrims, this was the Ara Solis -- the place where the sun died each evening into the western sea.
The lighthouse itself is an octagonal granite tower built in 1853, its beam visible for 23 nautical miles. It replaced earlier fire beacons that had guided -- and failed to guide -- ships along this treacherous coast for centuries.
A geographical note: despite the mythology, this is not actually the westernmost point of continental Europe. That distinction belongs to Cabo da Roca in Portugal. What Finisterre is, and what gives it its power, is the point where the ancient world believed the earth ended.
The cape can be busy, and the number of vendors grows every year. Climb carefully down from the lighthouse area to a quieter lookout point, and you'll find enough solitude to sit with whatever the walk has meant to you.
The tradition of burning boots, clothes, or other possessions at the lighthouse is more recent than most pilgrims assume -- it appears to have started in the 1980s among foreign visitors, not in the Middle Ages. Regardless of its origins, it's now strictly prohibited due to fire risk. A brush fire in 2016 near the lighthouse made the ban permanent. The blackened rocks near the 0.00 km marker are evidence of how popular -- and how destructive -- the practice became.
The scallop shell you've been following for weeks or months appears one final time on the 0.00 km marker at the end of the cape. Behind it, the Atlantic.
The cape has been a destination since before recorded history. Celtic pilgrims traveled here over a thousand years before the Santiago tradition existed, drawn by sun worship and the belief that paradise lay beyond the sunset. The Romans maintained what tradition calls an Ara Solis -- an altar to the sun -- though no archaeological evidence has been found. Roman soldiers who reached this point reported seeing the sun hiss as it sank into the ocean, larger here than anywhere else in the empire.
The Costa da Morte -- the Coast of Death -- has claimed over 600 documented ships since the 14th century. The HMS Serpent sank off nearby Cape Vilan in 1890, drowning 172 crew, and the disaster led directly to the electrification of that lighthouse. The Prestige oil tanker broke apart off this coast in 2002, releasing 77,000 tonnes of fuel oil in what became Spain's worst environmental disaster.
