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Las Médulas and El BierzoBy carJosé Antonio Gil Martínez from Vigo, Spain — CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Las Médulas and El Bierzo

León, Spain · Spain

A region wedged among mountains west of León, with a climate and a wine of its own, which Rome worked for two centuries for its gold. What they left is Las Médulas: not a mine, but what remained of a mountain after they burst it from within with pressurised water. A thousand years later came the Camino de Santiago and the Templars, and out of that came Ponferrada, Cornatel and Villafranca. Three layers of history in fifty kilometres.

3 days2 nights96 km6 stopsBest season: Autumn, without question: the chestnuts of Las Médulas turn golden and the contrast with the red earth is what makes this place unlike any other. Spring works too. In summer it is hot and the car parks fill by mid-morning.
Day 1The iron bridge and the TemplarsDay 2The Valley of Silence and the rockDay 3The mountain Rome blew apart

Day 1 · The iron bridge and the Templars

Molinaseca and Ponferrada · 8 km

MolinasecaJosé Antonio Gil Martínez from Vigo, Spain — CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Molinaseca

heritage

You enter the village across a seven-arched medieval bridge over the river Meruelo, and the Calle Real is a single line of crested houses that was for centuries the first sizeable town on the Camino after descending the Montes de León. Pilgrims arrived here wrecked, straight off the Foncebadón pass.

Tip

In summer the pool under the bridge fills with people swimming. Park at the entrance and walk in: inside, the street is narrow and one-way.

10 min to the next stop · 7 km

PonferradaC messier — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Ponferrada

history

The name comes from a bridge: in the 11th century the bishop of Astorga had the one crossing the Sil reinforced with iron for pilgrims, and from that pons ferrata the town grew. Its Templar castle is the most imposing fortified complex in northern Spain, and the Order held it as one of its most important seats in the Peninsula until its dissolution in 1312.

Tip

Inside the castle is the Templar library, with facsimiles of medieval codices, and it is the part almost everyone skips. And the basilica of La Encina, five minutes away, holds the patron saint of El Bierzo.

Day 2 · The Valley of Silence and the rock

Peñalba de Santiago and Cornatel · 56 km

Peñalba de SantiagoFogar Mozárabe — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Peñalba de Santiago

history

At the head of the Valle del Silencio, a slate village reached by a mountain road that leads nowhere else. Its 10th-century church is among the finest Mozarabic buildings left in Spain: horseshoe arches, a doorway with twin arches and a plan unlike anything being built in the north at the time.

Tip

The valley is called the Valley of Silence because of a legend: Saint Genadius, who meditated in a cave, ordered the river to fall silent because it would not let him pray, and the river obeyed. The road is narrow and full of bends: allow three quarters of an hour from Ponferrada even though it is twenty-five kilometres.

60 min to the next stop · 40 km

Cornatel castleJosé Antonio Gil Martínez — CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Cornatel castle

history

A fortress on a sheer rocky spur, on ground that needed no wall over most of its perimeter. It belonged to the Templars and is one of the settings of 'El señor de Bembibre', the Romantic novel by Enrique Gil y Carrasco that fixed the Templar legend of El Bierzo.

Tip

It is somewhat out of the way and has limited opening hours: check before making the detour. The view from the parade ground over the Sil valley is worth the detour even if it is closed.

Day 3 · The mountain Rome blew apart

Las Médulas and Villafranca · 32 km

Las MédulasDavid Perez — CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Las Médulas

history

The largest open-cast gold mine of the Roman Empire, and what remains today is not a mine but what was left of a mountain. They opened galleries inside the mountain, brought water down from the range through hundreds of kilometres of channels and released it inside under pressure until the mountain burst from within: the method was called ruina montium. Pliny the Elder, who served as procurator in Hispania, described it as work surpassing that of giants.

Tip

Go up first to the Orellán viewpoint, three kilometres from the village, then down into the gallery: the entrance is by steps behind the lookout. The Valiñas path is four level kilometres among chestnut trees, with La Cuevona and La Encantada on the way.

25 min to the next stop · 27 km

Villafranca del BierzoJoergsam — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Villafranca del Bierzo

culture

They call it little Compostela, and the reason is in the church of Santiago: its Door of Forgiveness let pilgrims who arrived ill and could go no further obtain the jubilee here, without reaching Compostela. There are a hundred and ninety kilometres left to the cathedral, and for many that threshold was the end of the road.

Tip

Walk down the Calle del Agua too, the one with the crested houses, and to the convent of San Francisco. And in a Holy Year the Door of Forgiveness is opened; the rest of the time it stays closed.

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