At shortly after first light I was crossing the Miño on the Ponte Romana, having passed my first xunta camino hito - 98,700 metres to go, on the Primitivo. The 4th place one of my caminos has crossed the Miño - on the Geira e dos Arrieiros, on the Sanabrés, on the Invierno, and here. I continued on the Primitivo for about 10km, almost entirely on tarmac, entirely next to a road, and for about 5km actually on the road, with no verge and most cars ignoring the 70 and 50kmph speed limits.
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The Primitivo mostly follows the Vía Romana XIX, with occasional deviations. On one of these I followed the Roman road to Santa Eulalia de Bóveda.
What a place, what a place. One of the highlights of a camino that has included a glut of Roman, pre-Romanesque and Romanesque. A small underground chamber, partly a 4th century barrel-vaulted Roman structure - possibly even earlier - with faint relief carvings visible on some of the stones.
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In the 6th or 7th century the Visigoths added what is believed to be the earliest known horseshoe arch in Europe.
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More importantly, they covered the ceilings with exquisite paintings. Highly realistic, delicately coloured paintings, mostly of birds - pheasants, ducks, peacocks, chickens - and some plants.
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At first glance I assumed they too were Roman - their style is not dissimilar to some of the works in Herculaneum - but the knowledgeable and chatty guide assured me they had been carbon-dated to the 7th century. Above, the structure had been covered over by an entirely nondescript 18th century church, which probably saved it from destruction. Nobody knows what it was designed to be - spa, temple, church, burial ground.
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Enigmatic - and astonishingly beautiful - for ever. Such a pleasure, and especially to be shown round by the charming custodian, who was thrilled when I showed her some pics of the later horseshoes at San Miguel de Escalada. And her office had the only two miliarios I've seen on this section of the XIX.
And then on to Friol. I'm sure I've read on gronze or somewhere that the Camiño Verde link between the Primitivo and the Norte is signed from Santa Eulalia as well as from Lugo, but I couldn't find any green arrows. Mapy.cz sorted me out a perfectly decent route, so it wasn't a problem. Although loose agressive dogs were. At one point 4 were circling me threateningly, while their owner ineffectively tried to call them off. I told her she shouldn't let them out if she couldn't control them, and she shouted something at me in Galician. From her tone, I don't think it was complimentary.
At one high point there was a distinctive bump in the hillscape due south, which I think might have been the Monte do Faro, just after Chantada on the Invierno. I had been regretting not getting to see the two outstanding (and atypical) el Grecos in Monforte de Lemos. But after Santa Eulalia, I no longer am.
At Friol, I'm staying in the Pensión Casa Benigno, which is fine, and which did a decent lunch. Künig carried on on the Primitivo, probably using the Vía Romana after Bóveda.