Outside our window was this version of the horreo. So we’ve now seen them in the cities as well as villages, fancy, brick, wooden, some with crosses on them. I asked a group of Spaniards behind us at one point, but they didn’t know either. Guessing animals, fire under, but didn’t know really. I’ll find out.
A short day today, but really nice. The weather gave us another day starting with mist and then moving to clear, cool and sunny.
At one point, Rick had gone ahead (I thought, turns out he took a wrong turn and had to catch up) and I was in this cool road – similar to above, but much further along. In English, they used to call this kind of sunken road a “holloway”, I don’t know if it has a name here. I love them. Then shortly after, I was in a tree alley.
Pilgrim statues point us on our way and a Santiago cross at the start of our walk:
One of my dawdling points that Rick joined in was a church open with a priest who was collecting money for a stamp on the Camino passport. He then left so that another guy and I could take a photo:
Amazing care taken for a small church for an even smaller town. In Wise Pilgrim, the town was described as smaller than its name: Campanilla.
Medieval bridge into Furelos, a town described as “abandoned”, but was just a wonderful small medieval town.
I wish I could have gone into the town’s church. Evidently there’s an unusual Jesus on the cross, one arm is pointed to heaven and one to earth. That had to have been pretty radical with pieces of the church remaining from the 13th c.
Final note: I missed the town of Leboreiro. I really wanted to see it, but guess it was so small it didn’t register as a town. I’d wanted to see it because of the miracle of the fountain near the church. When I realized I’d missed it, I asked Rick – he didn’t notice it, asked another woman, she said there was a bench with the name, but didn’t see the church.
The miracle as described in The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago:“ A legend describes the founding of the Church of Santa Maria. A heavenly odor and, at night, a shining light emanated from a nearby fountain. Villagers dug up an image of hte Virgin there and placed it on the altar of their church, but the next day they could not find the image, for it had returned to the fountain. This happened for several days, until the villagers carved this tympanum and dedicated the church to her, at which point the image remained calmly on the alter. This Virgin, with the lovely smile of someone who has gotten what she wants, is still in the church. Reports indicate that in the 1960’s some villagers believed that she returned to the fountain every night to comb her hair.”
Isn’t that great? I seriously considered retracing my steps since we were already at our town and it was just 12n. It would have added 5 miles. But when others said they didn’t see anything, I didn’t know how far or exactly where the church would be and it was unlikely to be open. So – missed. Sigh. But a great day!
Reb's Walks! 