Has anyone been to Castrillo de los Polvazares? A town outside Astorga?

[camino.tati]

It may be known now as Valdecruces.. But It is an hour and a half walk outside the town and I was wondering if there was a bus to get there just for a short visit along the camino??

 

[mspath]

camino.tati,

Yes I have visited CdlP; it is a "Potemkin" village west of Astorga and seems quite dead! Read what I wrote about it here in my Camino Gazetteer on November 12, 2010 . You can walk there from Astorga via Murias de Rechivaldo on the CF then continue on the local highway LE-142 to CdlP.

Margaret Meredith

 

[peregrina2000]

This goes way way back so my details may be fuzzy, but we took a quick detour off the Frances after Astorga to visit Castrillo. It may have been 2002. It did not make for a difficult day, we still went on to Rabanal, but as you probably know there are now several other towns in between Astorga and Rabanal with albergues so it's even easier to plan to take a quick visit on your way on the Camino. It was well marked. I do think there is some historical basis and that it's an ancient maragato town (i'll leave the history to others), but it has been prettified a lot.

My memory is similar to what Margaret describes. It is an extremely well-preserved town, seems to be very touristy (we walked through on a Monday morning, I think, and it was totally dead but you could tell by all the signs that this is a tourist destination). All the buildings are stone with a uniform dark green trim, probably heavily regulated by law.

 

[annakappa]

One time we stayed in Murias and the hospitalero suggested that we walked over to Castrillo that afternoon. Yes, it's a "perfect" village. It's been totally renovated. Nearly all the paintwork is dark green, as if they didn't have any other choice of colour! Very photogenic, but not many people around. Now, a few years later, apparently there is an Albergue. Anne

 

[simply B]

I stayed there on a Sunday night late October last as the only person in a the small municipal albergue.

It is "cute", the description of it as a "Potemkin village" is one I will not argue. The town was packed with local visitors and the attraction was mainly the restaurants. (The food was good and in overly generous portions.) I suspect that, during the week, it is very quiet.

Walking on from the little town was easy and beautiful, I would not have suspected that I was on a "detour" from the Frances.

You will not find breakfast there should you stay. That comes a bit down the road at Sta. Catalina, if I remember correctly.

B

 

[caminka]

I visited castillo in 2009 as an alternative from murias to santa catalina. it's was very pretty orange that contrasted nicely with green shutters and green spruces in the background. perhaps a bit overzealous with restoration at times. it was empty of people and I continued on to rabanal as planned. I imagine it adds maybe 2km to the route.
I didn't take the LE road but a track along the (dry) stream (past the church in murias), not waymarked. the tracks back to CF had a few yellow arrows. now that there's an albergue there, the route is probably adequately waymarked.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

It has its own website:

http://www.castrillodelospolvazares.net/

 

[GunnarW]

I was there two years ago
Look here - forward to 16'00"