Albergue de la Piedra (Villafranca del Bierzo)

OPEN FROM MARCH TO NOVEMBER.

Opened in June 2008. The hostel was built by Unai and Livia, two young people who left their lives in Madrid to begin a new chapter on the Camino. The Albergue de la Piedra is built on top of a mountain, and keeps a piece of it inside. A very family-like atmosphere.

The modern facilities and the owners’ commitment to the Camino and to bike pilgrims will make this place perfect for a stop before tackling the slopes of O’Cebreiro.

Internet access, ATMs, pharmacy, medical surgery, grocery store with bakery. Bars and restaurants.

Near the hostel there is also a good bicycle workshop where we can repair our machines before entering the mountains and the constant ups and downs of Galicia.

MOTOS URBANO. Phone: 987540412. Pte. Nuevo, 2, 24500, VILLAFRANCA DEL BIERZO, LEÓN.

It is worth stopping in this town, as it is one of the last great villages full of history and monumentality before entering rural Galicia.

The tradition of the Door of Forgiveness of the Romanesque church of Santiago dates from 1122, when Pope Calixtus III granted the Bierzo temple the privilege of granting the Jubilee to pilgrims who, for health reasons, cannot reach Santiago de Compostela.

Between the 19th and 20th centuries the door was walled up due to plagues and to protect the temple from assaults, until in 1948 the custom was resumed on the occasion of the Jacobean Holy Year.

In this way, each year in which 25 July falls on a Sunday, pilgrims who have travelled at least 150 kilometres of the pilgrimage route and are unable to continue the Camino to the apostle’s tomb can obtain the Jubilee in this town.

This is the only temple on the Camino de Santiago, apart from the Compostela cathedral, that holds this privilege in a Jacobean Holy Year.

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