Camino de Invierno
19.7 km, 245 m up and 189 m down, through 5 places, 3 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Cirueña. Most are too small to sleep in — a fountain, a chapel, a bar that may or may not be open — but they are what the day is actually made of.
The camino no longer passes through Cirueña but runs immediately adjacent. If you need a coffee or breakfast, turn left on the main road and walk about 200 m into the village. Otherwise, press on toward Santo Domingo de …
Leaving town, you cross the Río Oja on a rebuilt version of Domingo's original bridge. The river is often dry or reduced to a trickle. From here the camino continues through flat farmland toward Grañón, about 7 km away — the last village in La Rioja before crossing into Castilla y León.
The walk from Grañón to Redecilla del Camino is about 4 km of gentle terrain. Roughly halfway, you cross the regional border from La Rioja into Castilla y León — province of Burgos. There's no grand marker, but the landscape begins to change. The villages ahead are smaller, quieter, and more typically Castilian.
From Redecilla the camino continues through a string of small agricultural villages — Castildelgado, Viloria de Rioja, Villamayor del Río — before reaching Belorado, approximately 18 km from Grañón. Services are scarce between Grañón and Belorado, though most villages have at least a bar.
You've left La Rioja and entered Castilla y León, Spain's largest autonomous community. It's made up of nine provinces; the Camino Francés passes through three of them — Burgos, Palencia, and León. The other six (Ávila, …
The walk from Redecilla continues through flat agricultural terrain to Castildelgado (2 km), then on to Viloria de Rioja (another 2 km) — birthplace of Santo Domingo. Villamayor del Río follows shortly after. None of these villages has much in the way of services, though Castildelgado has an albergue and a truck-stop restaurant. From Redecilla to Belorado is about 14 km.
A small village with a church, an ermita, and a truck-stop restaurant with a reputation for decent hot chocolate — a combination that sounds unlikely but works. The albergue is the first house you reach coming into town,…
Viloria de Rioja is best known as the birthplace of Santo Domingo de la Calzada. His house didn't survive the centuries, but the baptismal font where he was christened remains in the parish church — a direct link to the …
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 133 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 20.2 km.
Esta entidad ha sido beneficiaria de una ayuda del Programa de incentivos a la movilidad eficiente y sostenible (MOVES III), gestionado por la Xunta de Galicia a través del Instituto Enerxético de Galicia (INEGA) en el marco del Real Decreto 266/2021, y cofinanciada por la Unión Europea — NextGenerationEU, dentro del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia.