Portomarin sits in the province of Lugo, in Galicia, on the western bank of the Belesar reservoir, the long artificial lake created when the river Mino was dammed in 1962. The town is the traditional end of stage 29 for pilgrims coming from Sarria. The Camino approaches Portomarin across the long modern bridge over the reservoir and climbs a steep staircase into the new town built above the high-water line.
Portomarin has been a Camino stop since the Middle Ages. The original medieval town stood on the banks of the Mino at the foot of the hill, around a Roman bridge that was rebuilt for pilgrims by King Pedro I of Castile in the 14th century. The town had two principal parishes, two pilgrim hospitals, and a fortified church built by the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem in the 12th century. In 1962, the Spanish government built the Belesar dam downstream, creating a hydroelectric reservoir that flooded the entire valley. Before the waters rose, the most important medieval buildings were dismantled stone by stone, with each block numbered and catalogued, and reassembled on the high ground above. The fortress-church of San Xoan (also called San Nicolas), a 12th-century Romanesque-Gothic Templar-Hospitaller church, was the most significant building moved, and now dominates the new central plaza of the rebuilt town. The smaller Iglesia de San Pedro was also rebuilt. The numbered stones on the church walls are still visible at close range.
Portomarin has the full range of services. There are albergues including the municipal Albergue de Peregrinos and private albergues, hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, supermarkets, a pharmacy, and ATMs. The town has bus connections to Lugo and Sarria. Portomarin is also known for Galician aguardiente, the regional grape-spirit distilled here for centuries.
When the reservoir water is low enough (usually late summer in dry years), parts of the old medieval town become visible at the foot of the climb up to the new town. The old Roman-medieval bridge piers, sections of foundation walls, and the cobbled streets sometimes emerge from the receding water. It is a haunting sight unlike anything else on the route.
