Walled medieval town where Fernán Pérez de Andrade lies in a Gothic tomb carried by a stone bear and boar. Once a provincial capital of the Kingdom of Galicia, it's also Spain's byword for runny tortilla.
Betanzos is one of the great historic towns of Galicia. It was capital of one of the seven provinces of the old Kingdom of Galicia until the administrative reforms of the 1830s, and its hilltop old town, a protected historic ensemble, still keeps several gates from its medieval walls. Pilgrims enter the way travellers always have, over the Ponte Vella on the Mandeo river and through the Porta da Ponte Vella, then climb the steep Rúa Prateiros to the main square.
The town flourished under the patronage of Fernán Pérez de Andrade, and his mark is everywhere. The Gothic church of San Francisco holds his remarkable tomb, dated 1387, the sarcophagus raised on the backs of a stone bear and wild boar and carved with hunting scenes. Nearby, Santa María do Azogue, built across the late 14th and 15th centuries and declared a national monument in 1944, is one of the jewels of Galician Gothic, with an unusual carved calendar of the months. The church of Santiago stands on the Praza da Constitución beside the town hall.
Betanzos is also a name every Spaniard links with food: its tortilla, famously soft in the middle, draws visitors from across the country. Every August the San Roque festivities send a giant paper hot-air balloon into the night sky, and the eccentric early 20th-century gardens of El Pasatiempo are another local curiosity.
Plan for a demanding next morning: the route leaves over the medieval Ponte das Cascas.
Every kind of bed in one place: online booking, direct-contact albergues, walk-ins and donativos. Live prices for your night.
The Camino through town, with prices where the beds are. Amber is the route; each pin is a place to stay.
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