Partner
Asociación de Amigos de los Caminos de Santiago de Madrid
The St James association of the Spanish capital, founded in 1987: it defined the Camino de Madrid to Sahagún, has waymarked it since 1996 and runs the hostel in Santervás de Campos.
The Camino on the map
Caminos of this partner
Who is behind the route
The Asociación de Amigos de los Caminos de Santiago de Madrid was founded in February 1987, shortly after the parish priest of O Cebreiro – the man who brought the yellow arrows to the Camino Francés in the 1980s – had visited Madrid. Ever since, the association has been the first port of call for anyone setting out on foot from the capital to Santiago.
The Camino de Madrid exists because of it: in 1993 the association studied three historic routes that led north from the capital via Segovia, Arévalo and Ávila, chose the route via Segovia and waymarked it with yellow arrows in 1996. In the Madrid region, granite markers and ceramic tiles were added later.
The association's route
- Camino de Madrid – the whole route: 324.9 km from the Church of Santiago y San Juan Bautista in Madrid via the Puerto de la Fuenfría (1,792 m), Segovia, the Tierra de Pinares and Medina de Rioseco to Sahagún on the Camino Francés
Few Spanish routes show so clearly what an association can achieve: in three decades an idea on paper became a route with hostels in almost every stage town.
What the association does for pilgrims
The association issues the credencial (€2, as of October 2026) and gives advice on stages, kit and hostels during its office hours; its website keeps track of which hostels on the Camino de Madrid are open. Since 2018 it has run its own hostel with 18 beds in Santervás de Campos, in a house once dedicated to the conquistador Juan Ponce de León; it also runs a hostel in Tardajos on the Camino Francés. It publishes a magazine and a guide to the Camino de Madrid.
Contact and getting involved
Office hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 to 9 pm and Wednesdays from 11 am to 1 pm. You can reach the association by email at info@demadridalcamino.com. Everything else, including hostel status and the credencial, is on demadridalcamino.com. An association that gave the capital its own Way of St James.