| STAGE 5. ASTORGA - RABANAL DEL CAMINO |
We will exit Astorga with the Jewish route, Plaza Esteban Carro Celada and San Pedro Street. We will cross the old National VI and then continue with the LE-142 highway until reaching Murias. We enter in Maragatería, land of the mule and horse drivers. The color of the earth and the vegetation will change before our very eyes. We will pass in front of the Ecce Homo hermitage. We arrive at Murias de Rechivaldo, the first typical Maragato town. Here we find the walk-way that will take us to Rabanal del Camino, going up towards Santa Catalina de Somoza. To our right, we can make out the town that still conserves the essence of a Maragato village with its little sea of reddish-roofs, Castrillo de los Polvazares. We continue walking, crossing El Ganso in order to arrive at Rabanal del Camino. But first, we must look at the oak forest, where the Pilgrim’s Oak stands out among the rest.
Murias de Rechivaldo
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In its 18th century church, we can find a relief of the Virgin of the Pilar, and a statue of pilgrim Saint Roque.
Castrillo de los Polvazares
Services: bar-restaurant.
The Maragatería is situated to the west of the province of León and to the south-west of Astorga between the mountain ranges of Teleno, Manzanal and Foncebadón. With an extension of 400 kilometers squared, it has forty-four towns arranged in eight municipalities: Brazuelo, Castrillo de los Polvazares, Lucillo, Luyego, Rabanal del Camino, Santa Colomba de Somoza, Santiago Millas and Val de San Lorenzo.
MARAGATO ARCHITECTURE
Courtyard patio, paved with boulders, functioned as a place to load and unload the pack trains (groups of transportation animals), as well as a space for people and animals and as a point of distribution to the house’s stables.
The kitchen is normally different from the rest of the rooms in the house.
The house can have up to two floors. On the top floor, we find the rooms. They are accessed through a hall.
The barn is situated on the top floor, over the stable.
The top part (attic, loft) is covered by rye straw or tile.
In order to enter, we’ll have to go through a big ashlar, post and lintel door, large enough to permit horse and mule drivers’ carts to pass through.
Santa Catalina de Somoza
Services: bar-restaurant.
As its name indicates "Somoza" under the mountain, in this case the long mountain, it had a lodge advocated by the Virgin of the Candles. Here, as in other towns along the road, its main street coincides with the path of our pilgrimage to Santiago.
EL Ganso
Services: bar-restaurant.
Here we find the straw-covered houses that Laffi spoke to us about in the Burgo Ranera. Santiago is the patron of the town, represented as a pilgrim. El Ganso had a lodge and a monastery, maintained by Cluny. Upon leaving Rabanal, we find the "Fucarona," a gold mine with geological characteristics similar to the renowned Medulas’.
Rabanal del Camino
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At the entrance to this town is the Pilgrim’s Oak, another symbol along the road. Gaucelmo, in other times, constructed his lodge here at the end of the ninth stage of Aymeric Picaud’s itinerary. The Santo Cristo de la Vera Cruz hermitage receives us in the town, in the royal street, Road to Santiago. The church has a Romanic apse. Next to the church, the Templars had a building in the 12th century. The San José chapel has an image of Santiago. |
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