Camino de Invierno

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About the Route

Key Waypoints

1. Ponferrada

   0km from start · 540m

   Starting point of the Camino de Invierno. Ponferrada is dominated by the formidable Templar Castle, built from 1178 by order of King Ferdinand II to protect pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago. The Knights Templar held the fortress for over a century, and legend says a network of secret tunnels once connected it to Carracedo Monastery. Today pilgrims collect their credencial stamp here and gaze up at the golden towers before setting off through the El Bierzo valley.

2. Las Médulas

   27.8km from start · 720m

   Stamp available at the Las Médulas visitor centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. This astonishing landscape of red rock spires was created by the Romans using the ruina montium technique — hydraulic mining described by Pliny the Elder in 77 AD, in which vast quantities of water were channelled through 100 km of tunnels to blast entire mountains apart in search of gold. Pilgrims often pause at the Orellán viewpoint at dusk, when the cliffs turn blood-red — a sight that has stopped travellers for two thousand years.

3. A Rúa de Valdeorras

   67km from start · 310m

   Short easy stage through the wine valley of Valdeorras. A Rúa is a tranquil riverside town in the Sil valley, surrounded by slate-roofed wine cellars and terraced vineyards. The Sil River flows gently through this valley, and the famous Valdeorras wine designation covers both whites from Godello and reds from Mencía. The old bridge and riverside walk make this a pleasant rest stop before the climb toward Quiroga.

4. Castro Caldelas

   105km from start · 730m

   Castro Caldelas is a cliff-edge castle town at 730 metres whose fortifications were contested between the Counts of Lemos and the Bishops of Orense throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The tower keep of the castle, built by the Count of Lemos in 1350, rises from naked granite above a 300-metre sheer drop into the Sil canyon. The Church of Santa María de Castro Caldelas preserves a rare Romanesque Virgin carved in the 12th century — one of the oldest sacred images in the Ribeira Sacra region. The town's position gives the first commanding views into the spectral terraced vineyards of the Cañón do Sil.

5. Sober

   136km from start · 490m

   Sober municipality contains some of the most extreme viticulture in the world — the so-called 'heroic vineyards' of the Ribeira Sacra, where monks from the Benedictine monastery of Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil began cultivating grapes on terraces cut into near-vertical cliff faces as early as the 9th century AD. The gorge walls drop over 500 metres to the river below, and vineyards are still tended by hand and harvested into boats on the Sil. The Church of San Xoán de Loio in Sober dates to the 12th century and was a documented pilgrimage halt for monks crossing from the Ribeira Sacra to Santiago.

6. Rodeiro

   184.8km from start · 630m

   Rodeiro is a quiet rural municipality in the Galician interior, set among rolling hills and traditional stone farmhouses. The route climbs to its highest elevation in this section, offering sweeping views of the Galician countryside ahead. The Romanesque Church of Santa María de Rodeiro is a fine example of rural Galician religious architecture. Local hórreos (stone granaries) on stilts line the lanes. Stamp at the Church of Santa María or the local café.

7. Bandeira

   224km from start · 430m

   Bandeira sits at a crossroads in the Ulla valley where the medieval Camino de Invierno intersected with the north-south drovers' road (the Vía de la Plata branch connecting the Galician interior to the Rías Baixas markets). The 12th-century Church of San Xurxo de Bandeira preserves a carved Romanesque font and a tympanum of uncertain iconography that has fascinated scholars of pre-Romanesque Galician art. The Ulla River, whose headwaters originate in the hills to the east, already runs with some current here and was crossed by stone-paved fords that medieval livestock drovers shared with pilgrims.

8. Outeiro

   246.3km from start · 260m

   The stamp at Outeiro is available at the local bar-café or the small chapel of San Xoán, both recognised pilgrim stops on this penultimate stage before Santiago de Compostela. The village sits at the convergence of old livestock droving roads and the medieval pilgrim route, and its name — meaning 'small hill' in Galician — refers to the granite knoll that has served as a landmark for travellers for centuries. Stamping here is a moment of quiet celebration: the cathedral towers are less than 20 kilometres away.

25 waypoints total · Sacred Trails app contains full detail for every waypoint.

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