Camino Photo of the Day: Welcome to Astorga!
The sign and the entrance to the city may not look like much, but Astorga is one of my favourite Camino towns. It has a number of beautiful churches, including a wonderful Gothic(ish) cathedral. There are museums dedicated to chocolate, as well as one housed in the old Episcopal Palace designed by Antoni Gaudí.
There’s evidence that people have been living at this spot for more than 200,000 years. It was an important Celtic town in the Iron Age. Following the conquest of Hispania, it became a Roman city and provincial capital. It was sacked by the Visigoths. An early Christian center, legend has it that both Santiago and St. Paul preached here. There was a bishopric here as early as the 3rd century.
It was abandoned between about 750 and 850 as part of the no man’s land between the Christian and the Moslem lands before being resettled by Prince Ordoño I of Asturias.
It was a sleepy byway on the Camino for most of the Middle Ages. After the conquest of Mexico, it became the first European center for the production of chocolate, for which it is still famous.
Why so much information on this small town? Because we’re going to be spending quite a lot of time here on the blog in Astorga. Because it’s fantastic!
Date: 20 April 2016
Place: Astorga (Castilla y León, Spain)
Today’s map:
