Castrojeriz

How long to stay?

One afternoon is enough, if you arrive early. It is only 8.9 kilometers from Hontanas, so you have time. The collegiate church with its museum, San Juan with its cloister, the pilgrim center in Santo Domingo and the climb to the castle fill the afternoon well. If you walk straight through from Burgos, you arrive tired and mostly see the main street; then at least go up to the castle in the evening. A rest day is not necessary: tomorrow the Alto de Mostelares awaits, and you are better off taking it well rested.

Castrojeriz in Ninja numbers

• Over 2 kilometers long is the main street you cross the town on. German pilgrims therefore called Castrojeriz the “long town”.
• 974 is the year Count García Fernández gave the town its Fuero, regarded as the first town charter of Castile: it put peasants with a horse on a par with the lower nobility.
• 141 meters of climbing await you tomorrow morning behind the town, over just under two kilometers up to the Alto de Mostelares, at 912 meters.
• 452.5 kilometers are left from here to Santiago on the Camino Francés.

Arriving: under the arch

The stage from Hontanas is short and leads down the valley. After 5.6 kilometers you walk through the ruins of San Antón, whose double arch spans the path. Then Castrojeriz lies before you: a conical hill with a castle ruin, the town laid around its foot. First you reach the collegiate church of Santa María del Manzano, which stands outside the old walls, then the long main street begins, leading you past everything.

In brief: border fortress, town charter, wool

The place appears around 882 as “Castrum Sigerici” in the Chronicle of Albelda. At that time this was borderland against the Moors, and Count Nuño Núñez held the fortress that Celts, Romans and Visigoths had already used. In 974 Count García Fernández granted the Fuero, a town charter with freedoms meant to attract settlers. In the Middle Ages Castrojeriz was, after Burgos, the most important place in the province on the Way of St. James, and its merchants traded wool as far as Bruges. In 1359 Queen Leonor was murdered in the castle, on the orders of Pedro I. In 1521 the Royal Council of Castile met here for a time.

The long town: what to see

Everything lies on the main street or just above it. The opening hours below apply to summer; for winter we found none.

• Santa María del Manzano: Queen Berenguela, the mother of Ferdinand III, had the collegiate church built from 1214. Three naves, on the west facade an Annunciation from the 13th century, on the high altar paintings by Anton Raphael Mengs. In a chapel stands the stone Virgen del Manzano from the middle of the 13th century, which already appears in the Cantigas of Alfonso X. The legend that goes with it is the pilgrim's reason for this visit: Saint James is said to have leapt down from the castle hill on his white horse and stopped at an apple tree, in whose hollow trunk he found the image of Mary. Horseshoes on the church door are said to commemorate the leap; take a look. Today the church is a museum of sacred art, open in summer 10:00–14:00 and 17:00–20:00.
• San Juan: From outside the church looks like a fortress; inside it has three naves with rib vaults and a cloister with a Mudéjar wooden ceiling. Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón rebuilt it in the 16th century over an older building. The exhibition “De Castrojeriz a Brujas” tells of the wool trade with Flanders that made the town rich. In summer 10:00–14:00 and 17:00–20:00.
• Santo Domingo: The Gothic church with a 16th-century portal houses a center on the history of pilgrimage, which tells in seven stations how pilgrims traveled through the centuries. We found no opening hours.
• The castle: You climb for about twenty minutes. The oldest part is a tower from the 9th century, and since 2013 the ruin has been made ready for visitors. From the top you see the whole long town and the path to the west that you walk tomorrow, with the Alto de Mostelares on the horizon.
• Plaza Mayor: The long square with arcades and town hall is typical of a town that grew along a path. The municipal albergue is here too.

Food and drink

Castrojeriz lies in lamb country: Lechazo asado, milk-fed lamb from the oven, Morcilla de Burgos and fresh cheese belong on the menu. In July the town celebrates a Fiesta del Ajo, a garlic festival.

Honestly

• The long street is long. If you sleep in an albergue at the other end, you walk another two kilometers after arriving.
• In winter it gets thin. Most private albergues open only from March or April to October; we found no museum opening hours outside the summer.
• San Antón is uncertain. The small albergue in the ruins had to close in May 2024 because of rockfall danger; in 2025 pilgrims again reported evenings there, on other days closed gates. Don't plan on it.
• The traditional pilgrim albergue San Juan no longer exists. The refugio of the association Amigos de los Refugios, run on a donation basis since 1989, is permanently closed according to the albergue directory.

Where pilgrims sleep

The Albergue de peregrinos San Esteban on the Plaza Mayor belongs to the municipality, is open all year and costs €9 with disposable bed linen; breakfast is on a donation basis (as of October 2026). One hall, one kitchen, entry from 12:30; you can only reserve in the low season. In addition there are many private albergues with beds from about €12 to €16, most open from March or April to October, among them Orión, Ultreia, Casa Nostra, Rosalía and the all-year A Cien Leguas. There is no longer an albergue run purely on donations in the town; the only one nearby is the one in the ruins of San Antón, with an uncertain status.

Ninja tips

• Look into the niches of the arch at San Antón. There the Antonians left bread for pilgrims who arrived after the gates had closed. Today they hold notes left by pilgrims.
• Get cash here. Castrojeriz has an ATM; Hontanas and the villages up to the Canal de Castilla have none that is confirmed.
• Climb to the castle in the evening. Twenty minutes up, and you see tomorrow's path.
• Fill your bottles before Mostelares. Beyond the town you cross the plain of the Odra and then climb steeply 141 meters up onto the plateau. There is no village on top; the next one on the map is Puente Fitero on the Pisuerga.
• Watch for the Tau cross. A wayside cross in the shape of a T recalls the Antonians, whose sign it was.

Practical tips for pilgrims

• Services: ATM, pharmacy, doctor, shops, bakery and butcher; doctor's emergency line +34 947 372 595.
• Bus: Monday to Saturday to Burgos.
• Festivals: San Juan on June 24, the Fiesta del Ajo in July, the festival of the Virgen del Manzano in the first week of September.

Onward: over the Mostelares to the Pisuerga

Beyond Castrojeriz you cross the plain of the Odra, then the climb begins: from 771 meters at kilometer 325.9 to 912 meters at kilometer 327.7, the steepest part at a good ten percent. At the top it immediately goes down again. At kilometer 333.4 you reach the bridge of Fitero over the Pisuerga and then Itero de la Vega. To Frómista it is 25.1 kilometers in all, with 272 meters of ascent and 294 meters of descent, via Boadilla del Camino and along the Canal de Castilla.

What awaits you tomorrow

Frómista, with San Martín de Tours, one of the best-known Romanesque churches in Spain, and the staircase of locks on the Canal de Castilla. The way there takes you over the Pisuerga into a new province, Palencia.

Deep dive: The town at the foot of the castle

A short read, in case you want to learn more about Castrojeriz. About three minutes' reading.

A mountain in the plain

Coming from the east, you see Castrojeriz long before you reach it: a single, cone-shaped hill in the flat landscape, the remains of a castle on top, and below a town that lies around its foot. A hill like this was always valuable. Celts, Romans and Visigoths already had a fortress here. In the Chronicle of Albelda, written around 882 and 883, the place appears as Castrum Sigerici, the castle of Sigerich. At that time the border between the Christian counties in the north and the Muslim south ran here. Count Nuño Núñez held the fortress at the end of the ninth century against attacks from the south. The oldest surviving part of the castle, a rectangular tower, dates from that time.

A town charter for peasants with a horse

Borderland has to be settled, or you cannot hold it. On March 9, 974, Count García Fernández, the first count of Castile, gave Castrojeriz a Fuero, a town charter. It is regarded as the first of Castile. Its most famous sentence made every peasant who owned a horse and could ride to war with it the equal of the lower nobility. Whoever settled and fought here was free. Later kings confirmed and extended this right up to the twelfth century.

The collegiate church and the apple tree

Outside the walls of the town there stood early on a church of the Mother of God, with a community of canons. In 1214 Queen Berenguela, the mother of Ferdinand the Third, had it rebuilt. Its image of Mary, the Virgen del Manzano, the Virgin of the Apple Tree, is a stone figure from the middle of the thirteenth century. Around it winds the legend that makes Castrojeriz a place of Saint James. The apostle, so the story goes, leapt down from the castle hill on a white horse and stopped at an apple tree. In the hollow trunk he found the image of the Virgin. King Alfonso the Tenth, the Wise, took the miracle into his songs of Mary, the Cantigas. Whether James was ever here, nobody knows. That people told the story, as early as the thirteenth century, is documented.

The long town

In the Middle Ages Castrojeriz grew along the path. The pilgrims came from the east, walked down the main street and left the town in the west. Churches and houses lined up along this street until it was over two kilometers long. German pilgrims gave it the nickname that has stuck: the long town. Merchants from Castrojeriz traded wool as far as Bruges in Flanders, and the church of San Juan tells of it in an exhibition. In 1521 the Royal Council of Castile even met here for a time.

The fire of Saint Anthony

Three kilometers before the town lies the ruin of San Antón. In 1146 a house of the Antonians was founded here under royal protection, an order that cared for the sick. Their patients suffered from Saint Anthony's fire, a disease that brought burning pain and made limbs die. Today we know that it came from a fungus in rye. The Antonians wore a T as their sign, a tau, and you can still find it on a wayside cross in Castrojeriz. For pilgrims who arrived after the gates had closed, the monks left bread in the niches of the archway. The arch spans the path to this day.

What Castrojeriz gives you

When this text was written, in autumn 2026, Castrojeriz was a quiet small town whose main street seems built for a much bigger one. You walk along it as pilgrims did eight hundred years ago, from east to west, past everything they saw. And tomorrow morning you climb the Mostelares and turn around once more at the top. Then you see the long town in full, beneath its hill, and the path you have come.