Camino Day 17: Castrojeriz - Fromista (09/10/15)

As I mentioned in the previous entry, Matt and Matthew were keen to see the stars over the Meseta, so we got up early at 5.55am. The scowling French lady in the bunk below, who had been so unfriendly the day before, obviously saw me as some sort of leader of our group (due to my grey hair!?) and came into the bathroom at 6.10am (presumably as a reprimand) to show me the time on her wrist watch before shuffling off scowling again.

The misty pre-dawn summit of

Alto Mostalares

 We quietly made our way through the silent streets of Castrojeriz, past San Juan and down towards the rio Odrilla. It turned out to be very misty, so there were no stars, but it was wonderfully atmospheric as we crossed the marshy area by the river, full of the noise of waking birds and began to ascend the Alto Mostalares. Mind you, the sense of misty seclusion was somewhat interrupted by Matt who kept bursting into loud exuberant worship songs, causing Matthew to comment something along the lines that the silence peppered by the occasional bird noise could be very lovely and evocative if only we were able to enjoy it!

It was still foggy at the summit of the Alto, but the sun rose suddenly over the Meseta as we descended the far side revealing a spectacularly beautiful scene as the track stretched before us and banners of mist lingered. The landscape was bejewelled with spider’s webs encrusted with sparkling dew drops and an all-encompassing silence hung over all; this was the Meseta at its most beguiling.

At Fuente del Piojo we stopped for a small picnic breakfast and Morning Prayer. Matt was eating some chorizo and bread and I was pulling his leg about his pronunciation of chorizo, to which he took offence as he was tired and stomped off after telling me that “the trouble with you Michael is that you never know when to stop” which may indeed be true!

Sloes

We came to the wonderfully evocative 13^th C pilgrim’s hospital of San Nicholas, which after being derelict for several centuries, has fairly recently been restored and opened as an albergue by the Italian Confraternity of St. James of Perugia. Inside there is space for only 12 pilgrims who can stay in fairly basic conditions, but enjoy a communal meal lit only by candles. I would dearly have loved to stay there and hope I can return someday and do just that. We enjoyed an espresso coffee, gave a small donation and had our credencials stamped.

Hospital San Nicolas

 A little beyond the hospital we crossed the rio Piseurga on the majestic eleven arched Puente de Itero, built in the 11^th C by Alfonso VI, whose development of the Camino we have seen examples of since Najera. Upon crossing the river, we were leaving the province of Burgos and entering Palencia. The river was in the past the border between the Kingdoms of Castille and León and indeed the name Itero comes from the Spanish word “hito” which means boundary stone and indeed, a modern boundary stone welcomed us to Palencia.

Puente de Itero

The river is also the point where the area called the Tierra de Campos or Land of Fields starts and continues to the rio Cea at Sahagún. This is a rich and extensive agricultural area that is well irrigated by canals and specialises in wheat, vegetable and wine production. In Medieval times it was also known as the Campi Gothorum or Fields of the Goths and much admired for its rich agriculture but also noted for its unvarying landscape. The Poitou priest Aymeric Picaud who wrote the Liber Peregrinatos in about 1130; the first European Guidebook to the Way of St. James comments about the Tierra de Campos that:

“It is a land full of treasures, of gold and silver, rich in wool and strong horses, and abounding in bread, wine, meat, fish, milk and honey. However, there are few trees…”

Irrigated fields on the Tierra de Campos

We stopped at Itero de la Vega for second breakfast in a rock music themed café as we admired the proprietor’s business acumen who had sent out a woman to meet hungry pilgrims and distribute flyers to them advertising the cafe about 500 m before the village was reached. The bacon and eggs (accompanied by the obligatory medicinal Rioja) was excellent and lived up to the billing on the flyer! By the time we left Itero Matt and I had walked together and had a chat and our recent disagreement was soon forgiven and forgotten.

Itero de la Vega

We walked on, crossing under the Canal Piseurga and stopped for Midday Prayer on the summit of a small hill crowned by pine trees, however we didn’t linger as the pines in addition to providing shade, also sheltered a density of midges worthy of Scotland in August!

Just before Boadilla del Camino we met a shepherd leading his flock of sheep which reminded me of the words of Jesus in John 10:27:

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me"

We stopped for lunch at the En El Camino Albergue, which has extensive gardens and a swimming pool and this allowed us to have a very pleasant outdoor dining experience. Outside the albergue is the wonderful 15^th C village cross or Rollo, which is a stone column that functioned as a symbol of judicial authority and was the place where trials and executions would have taken place. The rollo was richly decorated pilgrim scallop shells and other motifs. I was also keen to visit the 16^th C Parish Church of the Assumption as it apparently contains a beautiful 14^th C gothic baptismal font, but David made me laugh by remarking about my deep interest in such things that “I need this church to be closed” and indeed he got his wish as it was and so we trekked onwards!

Boadilla Rollo

After Boadilla we had a little trouble finding our way onto the tow path of the Canal de Castilla, but once we did, we enjoyed a very pleasant tree-lined walk alongside the canal all the way to Frómista, noting how at regular intervals, irrigation channels ran off the main canal to water the surrounding fields. The modern Canal Piseurga that we passed under before Boadilla was created for irrigation purposes only, however the Canal de Castilla was created in the 18^th C and according to the Lozano guidebook (see bibliography) it was “an important feat of 18^th-century engineering…the fruit of the enlightened policies of the Marqués de la Enselada, and had a triple function: the transport of cereals, irrigation and grinding corn” the latter being because it provided water to power mills. The canal locks which we saw are now all defunct with no gates and it seemed to me that if they are restored, the canal could become one of the great canal journeys of Europe and attract tourism to the region with the accompanying narrowboats and marinas. Apparently, there is indeed such a plan and to see the large locks functioning again would be an impressive sight.

Canal de Castilla

Matthew, David & Matt on the canal locks at Fromista

Arriving at Frómista, we checked into the Estrella del Camino albergue which had a pleasant ambience, nice gardens and an ancient dog belonging to the owners which could barely walk due to its antiquity! We were pleased to meet up again with the Danish lady from Sweden who we had met at the Emaús albergue in Burgos and David enjoyed a long chat with her about the Camino.

Hospital de Palmeros

After a rest and a shower, I was keen to see the famous 11^th century Romanesque church of San Martín. On the way and fairly close to the albergue, we stopped to take a look at the exterior of the medieval Hospital de Palmeros, which is now a restaurant serving authentic (but rather expensive) Castillian cuisine. The name palmeros is rather interesting as it refers to Palmers – pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem who had the palm leaf as their symbol. It may be that it refers to pilgrims passing through the area on their way to Jerusalem, but the term also later came to apply to pilgrims in general.

San Pedro

Close by is the gothic church of San Pedro with its vaulted ceiling which was delightfully out of alignment (subsidence? A dodgy architect?). In the shop I bought a pin for my hat of the rollo at Boadilla.

San Pedro Vaulting

San Martín itself for me, lived up to it’s billing, though of course, Matthew was decidedly under awed by the Romanesque as usual! Consecrated in 1066, it was founded by the widow of Sancho III of Navarre and is considered one of the greatest examples of the climax of Romanesque architecture in Spain.

San Martin

Constructed from a warm yellow stone the church has two drum towers on the west front, three apses at the east end and an octagonal tower rising over the crossing. Two bands of chequered stonework lighten severity of the walls, however the main feature of note on the exterior are the 309 corbels that run around the eaves and are decorated with a profusion of animal, vegetable, geometric, monstrous and human representations.

Exterior of apses showing corbels

The interior of the church reveals a basilica plan with three naves; the largest and highest leading to the central apse where a 14^th century crucifixion hangs behind the altar and two lower side aisles leading to the smaller side apses.

The beginnings of the development of churches with a Latin cross design is also in evidence as there is a transverse aisle running across beneath the octagonal tower. The majority of the aisle pillar capitals are richly carved with biblical scenes such as Adam and Eve and the Adoration of the Magi, but some have ornamental plant and animal motifs and I enjoyed examining them.

Adoration of Magi capital

As I sat in the main aisle I had to admit that there is perhaps something more appealing about the lighter frivolity of gothic architecture with its fluted columns and soaring vaulting compared with the austere plain-ness of the Romanesque stonework as displayed at San Martín, and yet there was something awesome, something stately, triumphant and powerful about the church – it made the weight of its presence felt, which is no doubt what the medieval church and kings of Castille and León wished to convey!

Main Aisle

Of particular interest inside was a model showing how the church looked in the 19^th C, with its semi derelict timber framed extensions (similar to the church we saw in Itero de la Vega) before it was heavily restored back to its original Romanesque state.

Crossing beneath octagonal tower

If there was a downside to the church it was that it now seems rather marooned in a sterile wide plaza, covered with modern flagstones. It gave the impression of the 11^th century having been incongruously dropped into a 21^st century square – the kind of feeling you get when you visit some ugly British cities that were bombed in WWII or subjected to “improvements” in the 1970s and where you come across some medieval church surrounded by a shopping mall and with a concrete office block in the background. This is perhaps no surprise as Frómista was apparently a centre of the rail industry in the 19^th C and industrialisation never improves a town in my experience. I am sure a few trees and flower beds could have made the surrounding area look less sterile, but perhaps trees would damage any surviving archaeology of the monastic complex that must have once surrounded the church?

Sitting outside in the sun contemplating this, various bells began to ring around Frómista calling the faithful to Mass and an American pilgrim standing nearby enquired if there was an emergency? I squinted at him in the sun and at first thought he must be joking, but then realised that no, he really did think the bells were ringing for the emergency services. I suppose living in Ireland where the Angelus bell rings on the national radio station at 12.00pm and 6.00pm before the News, I have come to imagine everyone knows about these things, even if like me, you are not a Catholic!
I was all for trying the authentic Castillian cuisine at the Hospital de Palmeros, but the others, probably rightly, felt it was too expensive and so we went to a rather generic café nearby for pizza. Afterwards we headed back to the albergue where Matthew and I said Evening Prayer together before bed.

We had come to the end of my third section on the Camino and it was time to travel home the next day. Anyone for Castillian cuisine to celebrate when we next return….?

Camino Day 16: Hornillos - Castrojeriz (08/10/15)

We left the “Meeting Point” albergue at dawn; the Moon and Venus could still be seen hanging in the sky of a calm, clear morning after the recent wind and rain. The day turned out to be a hard day’s walking for me because I had a blister on the inside of my left little toe which I had stupidly covered with Compeed to try and protect it the previous day in much the same way as I had successfully protected blisters on my heels; however instead, I had only succeeded in pulling the top off the blister and each step of the day was throbbingly painful. In addition, I had a hot little blister underneath my foot between the first and second metatarsals, so I limped along grimacing every now and then!

Matt & Matthew on the Meseta

Putting the discomfort in my foot to the back of my mind, however, I was otherwise soon enjoying the walk as we climbed out of Hornillos and back up onto the Meseta. I found the Meseta sublime; a stark, pared back landscape of expansive views, distant wind turbines, wide fields and the whisper of the wind with the ever present sound of Skylarks bubbling effusively high above the meditative silence.

Descending into Hontanas

A short, steep, descent brought us down into Hontanas where we had breakfast, a little after 10am, accompanied by the obligatory medicinal glass of Vino Tinto (what a difference it makes to walking!). We ribbed Matthew by placing our empty glasses in front of him and then texting the photograph to his wife Heather back in Ireland to inform her that he was already on the alcohol so early in the morning! After breakfast we found a secluded courtyard behind the church, which was being used as a children’s playground and sat in the sun saying Morning Prayer together.

Matthew enjoying his breakfast wine

We walked separately after this and I took a few minutes to examine the ruins of the monastery of San Miguel. A solitary pillar of stonework, which I took to be possibly the remains of the east end of the church, standing on a hillside above the Camino track is all that remains of this religious foundation.

San Miguel

Searching for more information afterwards, I was surprised how little comment there was on the site, even in guidebooks, that otherwise go into great detail about even the most obscure locations and so I was unable to find out anything about San Miguel. It was good however to sit for a few minutes in that rocky field the only colour coming from wild yellow Verbascums and to have the sense of time having passed the place by, even as pilgrims on the track below me were hurrying on their way without even pausing to notice the ruins.

A few kilometres further on I reached the ruins of the 14^th century monastery and hospital of St. Anthony and caught up with everyone else. The impressive Arco de San Antón straddles the road. The blocked up archway of the church beneath the arch has six archivolts full of decayed carvings, but is still striking enough despite this and opposite the entrance are alcoves in the wall where the monks used to leave bread for pilgrims who arrived when the door was locked. Today the alcoves are full of messages and momentoes left by modern pilgrims.

Arco San Anton

The Antonine Order that ran the monastery is interesting in itself. It is named after St. Anthony, one of the first and probably the most famous of the 3^rd Century Desert Fathers, who lived as hermits in the desert of Egypt and whose rule became the basis for Christian Monasticism. Anthony’s relics were eventually moved from Egypt to Constantinople and then to France to protect them from the increasing Muslim incursions in the Middle East. In 1095 the Antonine Order was founded by the French noble Guérin and authorised by Pope Urban II and very soon, the Order became famous for treating the skin disease erysipelas, also known as St. Anthony’s fire. Interestingly, St. Anthony was also the patron saint of swineherds as pigs can also suffer from erysipelas.

Tau cross in window of ruins

The symbol of the order was the “T” shaped tau cross, some of which still adorn the stonework of the ruins in several places, especially the windows. The historic cross Jesus was crucified on may well have been T shaped rather than the Latin form of the cross which we are familiar with today and it is an interesting study in itself to note that in the old Hebrew alphabet (pre the Babylonian exile) the last letter was tav, which came from the same ancient root (probably representing two sticks on the ground) as the Phoenician letter that the Greek letter tau later originated from. The Phoenicians, who lived in the Levant, invented the first phonetic alphabet (rather than hieroglyphic symbols for words) and our letter “a” like the Hebrew letter Aleph, originates from the Phoenician symbol for an ox with horns that then got turned on it’s side. It is fascinating, therefore, that the old Hebrew alphabet started with the symbol for sacrifice and ended with a cross! A prophetic coincidence? I doubt it, but draw your own conclusions! 

Semitic letter chart showing development of tav / tau
www.ancient-hebrew.org

What certainly is interesting is that in the Bible in the book of Ezekiel 9:4 - 6, the Prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of an angel who was told to go through the city of Jerusalem before it was judged and mark those whom God was going to protect with a tav (tau) or mark on their foreheads. The angel was told “but on those you see the tav, you shall not kill” The symbol of a cross protected them. (It is also a sobering thought to look at the bottom of the above chart and realise that in it's later Arabic form this is the same letter that ISIS recently daubed on the door posts of Christian homes on the Nineveh Plain in Iraq when they swept into the area of Qaraqosh in 2014 persecuting Christians and destroying churches).

Alcoves

The Antonine monks of course knowing all this and that the tau cross was popular amongst the Desert Fathers and the Coptic Church that St. Anthony came from, wore a blue tau symbol on their black habits and used tau crosses in their healing ceremonies, which they considered to protect people from evil and sickness. (St Francis who had contact with the Antonine Order also wore the tau and his robes). Unfortunately however the healing ceremonies and use of the tau became increasingly esoteric and superstitious. After the Reformation the Order’s income declined and once the link between the Ergot fungus which blights Rye crops and produces alkaloids that affect the circulation in humans when ingested and therefore causes erysipelas, was realised and steps taken to avoid it, the Antonine Order lost its role and was amalgamated with the Knights of Malta in the 1700s.

Leaving esoteric thoughts of tau crosses behind, we began the nearly 5km walk along the road into Castrojeriz with the impressive fortress rising before us with the town strung around the hill beneath it like a necklace. By the time we reached Castrojeriz, my back was playing up and I was getting ominous twinges in my lumbar region, which sometimes happens when I carry a rucksack for too long. I therefore had to zigzag up the main road into the town instead of walking straight up the hill!

David powering towards Castrojeriz

We checked into a rather quaint albergue a five minute walk from the main plaza. The entrance hall had antique furniture, various old farming implements decorating the walls and polychromatic tiles on the floor. I found my bunk which was above a French woman who I smiled at and greeted pleasantly, only to be rebuffed by an angry scowl and the barked retort “I don’t understand anything you are saying to me!” in remarkably good English for one who didn’t understand I felt! She spent the rest of the day wandering around scowling and generally looking annoyed, so I left her to it, had a shower and handed in some laundry to the Hospitalero.

Castrojeriz

The three stooges - Matt, Me & Matthew!

Whilst I was in the bathroom Matt showed me numerous bites all over his back and tummy – they were in lines of double skin punctures – so characteristic of Bed Bug bites and he admitted he had noticed them after he had stayed in an albergue in Najera before he joined us. I was glad my bunk was across the room from his!

Ascending to the castle

After a rest, we went out for a walk around town. I had hoped to see inside the reputedly magnificent Gothic Hall-church of San Juan, but the locals were having a service there and made it clear when we inquired that it was not open. Instead we climbed the hill and examined the imposing ruins of the castle, whose ruins covered the entire span of Spanish history from Roman and Visigothic times through gun platforms constructed outside the castle for cannon in the Renaissance, until it’s final demise in the 18^th Century.

Inside the courtyard of the castle - the different stonework at the bottom

of the tower is Visigothic but parts may also even be Roman

By climbing to the top of the tower, where a modern metal platform had been erected, we were able to stand in the stiff, warm breeze and see the wide panorama  of the Meseta landscape around us and the Camino path stretching back to the monastery of St. Anthony and on up the Alto Mostelares – the hill we would climb the following day. Matthew even managed to spot a Peregrine Falcon hunting in the field below the castle with his binoculars and was very pleased with himself. At least it wasn’t yet another Red Kite!

Matthew examining the view

Descending, we had coffee in the Plaza Mayor and I bought a wooden tau cross to tie onto my rucksack as a souvenir. Maybe I should have used it in ceremonies to deal with Matt’s bed bug bites, but instead we went for dinner in a local hotel where we were served by a curiously glum looking waiter.

Plaza Mayor

Before bed we discussed plans get up early before dawn on our final day so that could walk on the Meseta under the stars and see the sunrise. Just before bed another pilgrim complained he had just see a bed bug crawling out of the antique settee we were sitting on and although I didn’t see it, I went to bed scratching and having nightmares about bed bug bites!!

Castrojeriz Castle with gun platform in foreground