The Camino Olvidado

After Villafría, I don’t think there’s any pavement at all, or very little. There were two highlights — the Roman ruins of Juliobriga, with a museum. We did not visit the museum, but enjoyed walking around and especially climbing the bell tower of the adjacent church overlooking the ruins.

From the ruins, the Camino goes up through a beech forest, about 200 m to the Peña Cutral. I remember some confusion on the top of a hill, and the GPS came to the rescue. And then there’s a descent to the spectaclar highlight of the day — the Romanesque church at Baños de Cervatos. Another Romanesque jewel, San Pedro. A good number of the capitals and corbels are erotic, though the purpose is still debated by art historians. For a sampling of the possible theories, see this article in El País. I only include G-rated pictures.

Day 7. Olea to Aguilar de Campoó (24 km)

Very good walking day, very pretty countryside and villages. It looks like even the last chunk of kms from Nestar into Aguilar have been taken off road. Or at least off the side of the national road going into town.

This is a day for which I would recommend keeping an eye on the track. There used to be several alternative routes, and they varied depending on which of the ancient sites you passed. The possibilities include Roman road, medieval bridge, Romanesque church, and menhirs.

I believe that the markings now all take you through Reinosilla and then on to Casasola.

To cut a few kms off the day, you could stay in Nestar, where there is an outdoor exposition on the Roman Road, a millario and an ancient (Roman??) bridge.