Cacabelos

Cacabelos sits in the province of Leon in the El Bierzo region, on the banks of the river Cua. The Camino enters the town across a medieval stone bridge and runs straight through the heart of the old town along the Calle de los Peregrinos. The town has been a major Camino stop since the 12th century.

Cacabelos has Roman origins and was settled along the road that connected Asturica Augusta (Astorga) with the gold mines at Las Medulas. The town was destroyed by an earthquake in 1108 and refounded shortly afterward by Bishop Osmundo of Astorga, the same bishop who rebuilt the iron bridge at Ponferrada specifically to protect pilgrims. Osmundo set Cacabelos up as a pilgrim staging post with a hospital, a parish church, and a charter granting privileges to settlers who would come and live along the route. The medieval Iglesia de Santa Maria anchors the historic centre. The Santuario de las Angustias, just outside town across a stone bridge, holds a venerated image of the Virgin and is the religious focus of the town's pilgrim heritage. The local archaeological museum, the Museo Arqueologico de Cacabelos, holds finds from the surrounding Castro Ventosa and other Celtic-Roman sites.

Cacabelos has the full range of services. The municipal Albergue Municipal de Cacabelos is laid out as a semi-circular arc of two-bed cells wrapping around the Santuario de las Angustias chapel, an arrangement found nowhere else on the Camino. There are also private albergues, hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, supermarkets, a pharmacy, ATMs, and bus connections. El Bierzo wine and local Bierzo dishes are widely available in the town.