Diego de Torres Villarroel (1694-1770) was exiled in Portugal between 1732 and 1734. Three years later, between April and September 1737, he went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, in fulfilment of a promise made during the times of Portuguese exile. The account he wrote of that journey is unique. It takes the form of a long scholarly poem, sometimes difficult to read, in which the hardness of the route and the disdain he felt for most of the places he passed by permeate. The negative memory he kept of his pilgrimage led him to consider it undevoted and unbecoming, because it resulted from a promise he had to keep and not from a genuine appeal of the pilgrim spirit.

The itinerary followed by Torres is known from the places where he spent the night, or about which he left a written memory. Through difficult and poorly paved roads, the poet highlighted the severity of the itinerary, the harshness of the people and the desolation of the landscape.

More than two and a half centuries later, Luís António Quintales transformed Torres' account into a Way of Saint James adapted to the needs of today's Jacobean pilgrimages. The Torres Way was created favouring paths that strengthen the relationship with each region's characteristic nature, respecting local heritage and ecological values.

The Torres Way was subject to intervention by a joint project of several Intermunicipal Communities (see project), being duly signalled from Sernancelhe and providing support materials, such as guides, maps, a support website and a mobile application that can be an excellent companion for the pilgrimage.