Camino Francés
20.7 km, 267 m up and 137 m down, through 5 places, 4 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Santibáñez de Valdeiglesias. 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 approach to Astorga becomes more interesting as the terrain begins to rise gently and the walls of the city come into view.
San Justo de la Vega sits just across the Río Tuerto from Astorga. The town has bars, restaurants, and a supermarket — useful for stocking up before or after Astorga, where services are more spread out. The Iglesia de Sa…
The camino exits Astorga through the western gate and enters the Maragatería — the hilly, depopulated country that was the Maragato homeland. The terrain changes immediately: the flat meseta is behind you, and the road ahead climbs gradually through stone villages toward the mountains.
Valdeviejas is a small village immediately outside Astorga's western gate. A bar and a small shop serve as a last stop before the quieter villages ahead. The Maragato architecture — stone houses with wide doorways built …
Murias de Rechivaldo is the first proper Maragato village on the route, with the characteristic stone houses and wide entrance gates that allowed mule trains to pass through. A couple of albergues and a bar provide servi…
Castrillo de los Polvazares is a perfectly preserved Maragato village — cobblestone streets, stone houses with massive wooden doors, and an atmosphere that feels like stepping into another century. It has been designated…
Santa Catalina de Somoza continues the Maragato pattern: stone houses, wide doors, and a village designed around mule transport. The difference is that Santa Catalina is less restored and more lived-in — which gives it a…
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 263 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 20.8 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.