Albergue de peregrinos municipal de Villalcázar de Sirga

The Casa del Peregrino is the municipal pilgrim hostel in Villalcázar de Sirga, a small village on the Camino Francés in the province of Palencia. It sits on the Plaza del Peregrino, right along the main route through town, making it easy to find after the long stretch across the Castilian meseta.

The hostel is managed by the Order of Malta, a Catholic lay religious order with a centuries-old tradition of caring for the sick and pilgrims. That connection gives the place a certain continuity with the medieval pilgrim hospitality that defined this route long before it became a modern hiking trail. The hospitaleros here are volunteers from the Order, which tends to mean a more attentive and personally engaged welcome than at a standard municipal facility.

Accommodation is in shared dormitories spread across two bedrooms, with a total of 20 bunk beds. The price of 10 euros or more includes a donation breakfast. There is a kitchen available for free use, with a microwave and refrigerator, plus a washer and dryer on site. The hostel is accessible for people with reduced mobility and has secure bicycle storage for cycling pilgrims.

It opens seasonally from mid-April to late October, with check-in from around 1:15 in the afternoon and doors closing at 10 in the evening. Villalcázar de Sirga itself is worth a stop regardless of where you sleep, largely for the remarkable 13th-century Templar church of Santa Maria la Blanca just steps away, one of the most impressive Romanesque-Gothic monuments on the entire Camino.