The Beauty of Ruins

[Theatregal]

I expect I'm not the only one who takes photos of ruins. The history, the stories they contain - remembered and forgotten. Houses, churches, hórreos, barns, cottages, stone walls, whole villages... Would love to see your photos and the location. This one, just past Bon Xesús on the way to Finisterre.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

1) The ruins sharing space with the refurbished on the Norte.
2) Still on the Norte, but don't recall where.
What a great idea for a thread @Theatregal...can't wait to see more pictures as they get added!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I found a couple more from the Norte although yours is more impressive.

 

[SabsP]

Prádanos de Bureba ( etapa Briviesca to Monasterio de Rodilla ) on the Camino Vasco Interior. . Someone was starting renovationworks.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Prádanos de Bureba ( etapa Briviesca to Monasterio de Rodilla ). Someone was starting renovationworks.

View attachment 85827

I guess mine are not actually ruins as they still have the roofs intact.

 

[Icacos]

This is going to be a great thread. Thank you @Theatregal.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

CF, somewhere near the 65 km mark.

 

[Theatregal]

Such wonderful photos posted already

 

[Theresa Brandon]

Camino Ingles

 

[Theresa Brandon]

Camino Ingles

 

[Richmond Gardner]

Sunrise through the gable of a church, as I was walking out of Rabanal. I think that’s all the church there was! You can see right through it...

 

[mlhhome]

My new favorite every time!

 

[peregrina2000]

Great idea for a thread, @Theatregal!

Quinta da Cardiga, on the Caminho from Lisbon before Golega. What used to be a glorious and luxurious estate is in a state of total abandon. The tower dates from 13C, and the Templars were somehow involved. But now it’s just a nice place for a rest for pilgrims. Lots of wisteria and some beautiful tiles, surprisingly untouched.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Camino Frances, ruins of Convento de San Anton and the hilltop Castillo overlooking Castrojeriz.



Camino Frances, delapidated horreo, Boente before Ribadiso.



Camino del Norte, first day from Irun on the Purgatorio Route, one of Mount Jaizkibel's former lookout towers, built during the 19th C Carlist Wars.


Camino Portuguese, before Arcos, don't think this building will be used again. Old mill buildings down river from the medieval bridge over the Rio Ave, Ponte Dom Zameiro.

 

[peregrina2000]

On the Camino Castellano-Aragonés, on the edge of a tiny dying town named Pozalmuro — this is where Spain’s most famous Romantic poet, Gustavo Bécquer, lived for several years.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Abbaye de Marcilhac on the Cele Valley variant of the Via Podiensis.

 

[Lexicos]

Can't remember exactly where this is on the CF but certainly from a bygone era.

 

[Lexicos]

Mud-brick cottage. One room for us, one for the farm animals.
I remember putting the mud and straw into the moulds for the bricks.
I was 2 y/o.

 

[C clearly]

Via de la Plata, on the day walking to Baños de Montemayor.

 

[William Garza]

I have always had wonder and reverence at ruins..human hands did this, ate lunch, laughed, lived lives and day after day built the thing.
Lives lived and passed as the thing aged.

 

[VNwalking]

The poignancy of dissolution always touches me. Looking at a ruin, I can't help but think of the excitement of the planning stage, and of all the creativity and money that went into a building that is now almost gone. And in between the construction and the dissolution, there would have been life and energy and love — where there are now only crickets.
This is what is left of Santa Maria de Lara, on the Camino San Olav. In the founation stones, the scale of what must have been an impressive structure is clearly visible,1300 years or so later. So much devotion went into this sanctuary, and you can feel it still. I found myself wondering who had been buried in those sarcophagi, and what were the stories of their lives?

 

[Theatregal]

Built into the rock just before Puente de Domingo Flórez on the Invierno. What was the story here? A home? A shed? It was tiny on the outside. I would have loved to see inside.

 

[VNwalking]

@Theatregal...
Oh! Those of us who walked into town on the regular route missed this mystery. Wonderful.

 

[Theatregal]

@Theatregal...
Oh! Those of us who walked into town on the regular route missed this mystery. Wonderful.

Oh ya! I always forget that this was my wayward day

 

[Terry Callery]

The Roman wall surrounding Lugo - much of it still intact. Lugo is on the Primitivo Route which I did in February and March in 2018. I walked the entire top of the wall which surrounds the great city.
The Romans took thirteen years to build the walls that surround the city of Lugo.

In the third century, when the complex of fortifications was thrown up to defend against Germanic invaders, the town was known as Lucus Augusti. It was an undertaking on a massive scale. It required enough rock and stone to create a wall that was fourteen feet wide and a height that was as much as thirty-nine feet high, but no less than twenty-six feet at any section. A man could walk his horse along the parapet on top of the wall and it would take him twenty-five minutes to complete a single circuit. Eighty-five acres of land was contained inside Lugo’s protected enclosure. In order to shoot projectiles at an enemy attempting to scale the rampart, the Romans built round towers (eighty-five of them) which jutted out from the walls. The towers eliminated any “dead spots” where the enemy could find protection from an archer’s arrows. There were just five entryways into the fortress which could be slammed shut with massive re-enforced wooden doors. This is on the top of one such defensive tower.

 

[Heikki]

This can be found on the Norte between La Franca and Llanes. Una casa de los indianos.

 

[Chris Gi]

Sadly, there is an abundance of derelict buildings on the Camino - but nature has waved her wand to make some of them quite magical.

 

[Theatregal]

Between Atapuerca and Burgos.

 

[Elle Bieling]

The Monasterio Moreruela, a Cistercian monastery built in the 12th century in the Romanesque and Gothic styles is massive and in total ruin. It is on the Camino Sanabrés, about 2 km off Camino between Granja de Moreruela and Tábara. It's beauty is still amazing. Something about ruins, for me, is way more romantic and incites my imagination.

 

[Saunterr]

love this thread!

VDLP

 

[Elle Bieling]

Great idea for a thread, @Theatregal!

Quinta da Cardiga, on the Caminho from Lisbon before Golega. What used to be a glorious and luxurious estate is in a state of total abandon. The tower dates from 13C, and the Templars were somehow involved. But now it’s just a nice place for a rest for pilgrims. Lots of wisteria and some beautiful tiles, surprisingly untouched.

This was one of my favorite places on the Portuguese Way. My husband and I talked about it for hours afterward - if only we had the resources to restore it! I even did some research and found that it was for sale on Sotheby's and actually still is!! Quinta da Cardiga. I included the link if anyone is interested! It would make a fabulous pilgrim stop! Although it only has 30 bedrooms. If you click through the photos on the top of the page, you will see how glorious it truly is/was!

 

[Anik2001]

This was on the way to Fisterra, a little after Negreira. Nature taking back the abandoned house.

 

[CarolR]

Built into the rock just before Puente de Domingo Flórez on the Invierno. What was the story here? A home? A shed? It was tiny on the outside. I would have loved to see inside.

View attachment 85919

Incredible

 

[C clearly]

This is what is left of Santa Maria de Lara, on the Camino San Olav.

I found another thread, that tells me that this is a Visigothic jewel. (I am struggling to learn and remember the difference between Visigothic, Romanesque, etc., etc.)

I have tagged the other thread with "side trips" and this one as well. If you find other threads about interesting landmarks or side trips, that deserve to be tagged, let me know by PM. Hopefully in the future, we'll be able to search within a route forum for landmarks and side trips along each route. (The complete thread is tagged - we can't select separate posts within a thread.)

 

[Myra Ramsay]

Some buildings which have seen better years often cause me to stop, look and think of the people and times when the building were in a better state. Ribadeo on the Norte has many grand buildings crying out for restoration to return them to their days of glory. The photo is of one such building. Hopefully it can be saved before it gets to the point of beyond saving.

 

[Myra Ramsay]

Oops think I stuffed inserting the photo. Sorry

 

[C clearly]

Oops think I stuffed inserting the photo. Sorry

Looks perfect.

 

[AlwynWellington]

Can't remember exactly where this is on the CF but certainly from a bygone era.

Bygone yes. Looking at the details suggest to me, within the last 100 years. See the relatively ornate balcony detailing and finish compared to the neighbour on the right. And the serrated window uprights. Some money at least was around at the time.

The reflection by @VNwalking is relevant here as elsewhere.

 

[VNwalking]

I found another thread, that tells me that this is a Visigothic jewel

If you find other threads about interesting landmarks or side trips, that deserve to be tagged, let me know by PM.

Good idea!
It was that thread that pushed me over the edge in deciding to walk from Santo Domingo de Silos to Burgos. There are a lot of inspiring posts to be found here on the Forum, and tags would definitely help in the finding of them.

 

[Cayou]

Manjarin has seen better days, it's pretty much all ruins except for Ramon's ... and sure glad he's there!

 

[Jim]

Beautiful!

 

[Former member 49149]

Oops think I stuffed inserting the photo. Sorry


View attachment 85998

This reminds me of a similar building in Pamplona. I may be wrong, but many buildings in parts of Spain were financed by returned citizens who had done ‘Las Americas’ and then spent the money on showing off the fruits of their labour. The one in Pamplona still stands proudly.

 

[Terry Callery]

I passed this Roman Aqueduct on the way into Coimbre on the Portuguese Route. Modern engineers knocked part of it down to built the new highway into Coimbre. It appears on the Brierly Map of the Route Portuguese.

 

[VNwalking]

Modern engineers knocked part of it down to built the new highway into Coimbre. It appears on the Brierly Map of the Route Portuguese.

How? Could? They? Do? THAT??
(Sorry for yelling...but that's unconscionable.)

Edit...phew...well, maybe because it's not Roman, but from the 16th C? Here's what the official Coimbre website says:

this aqueduct construction was ordered by King D. Sebastião in 1570, to supply water to the city’s Alta area [uptown], taking advantage of the existing route of the Roman aqueduct that existed before.

The design of this imposing structure, extending over a kilometre, is attributed to the Italian engineer Felipe Terzi.

 

[mai]

I like this thread, thank you for sharing.
I would like to share one as well.

This photo includes 3 parts:
- the front: The ruins of the medieval monastery of the Order of San Juan
de Acre founded in the 12th century to look after pilgrims.
(Brierley's guide p.100)
- the back: the vineyards of Don Jacobo
- the far side: Navarrete


It took me some time to include the 3 views + 2 pilgrims into one photo on 7 April, 2019.

 

[Turga]

I am sure many know the location of this ‘ruin’….

​

Somewhere between Ponferrada and Villafranca del Bierzo: A small pueblo half inhabited and half in ruins (made me think of the fabulous novel “La lluvia amarilla” by Julio Llamazares).

​

 

[Theatregal]

All that remains of the flour mill at San Miguel near Hontanas

 

[Dan S.]

A couple from the Norte






Sorry, don't remember the locations too well.

 

[mlhhome]

Se vende? VLDP’s El Real de la Jara memory.

 

[DyanTX]

I'd like to share a photo or two but seems my files are too big. What is the limit in size? OR is there another way to share them here?

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I'd like to share a photo or two but seems my files are too big. What is the limit in size? OR is there another way to share them here?

My photos are sometimes too big in size too, so I take a screenshot and then try to post the picture again. That sometimes helps to "dumb it down", but not always... sometimes I just plain give up. I am a techy duffus.

 

[Terry Callery]

I'd like to share a photo or two but seems my files are too big. What is the limit in size? OR is there another way to share them here?

Try cropping the photo.

 

[Cayou]

I'd like to share a photo or two but seems my files are too big. What is the limit in size? OR is there another way to share them here?

I email my photos to myself on 'large' size of about 800k, then add to my gallery for selection. Do not use original size which for me is about 6mb and way too big for the Forum site.
Ivar says 400k, which works fine, but you can go a little higher. If it's only 100k it is a very small size photo and won't do it justice.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I'd like to share a photo or two but seems my files are too big. What is the limit in size? OR is there another way to share them here?

The way I previously posted large jpeg files was the way @Camino Chrissy mentioned. Sometimes the resulting files were still too large. Although the dimensions were reduced my phone only saves screenshots as PNG files and these take more space than JPGs. Other phones may do JPGs by default or there may be an option to choose which format you want.

Now I use the free app Snapseed (bought by Google) that was mentioned by a forum member. It does all sorts of edits but to do size reductions of photos this is what I do. In settings I indicated that the longest dimension of a photo be reduced to 800 pixels (there are other choices). So I open the app and tap the screen to allow me to choose the photo to work on. At the bottom I choose EXPORT. I then choose EXPORT again on the next menu. That makes the reduced photo be saved in a snapseed directory/folder and that is the picture that I choose to send to the forum.

 

[Laurie Sanantone]

We passed this faded beauty walking into Llanes on the Norte last year (I think we somehow got off the main track). I did some Google research and found the history of the Villa Concepcion. It was built in the late 1800s by Doña Maximina Sobriño Díaz, whose brothers made their fortunes in textiles in Mexico. This is one of the “Indianos” Heikki refers to in post #27. When the emigrants returned from the Americas, they often built fabulous homes; their gardens included palm trees to symbolize their foreign adventures. After Doña Maxima’s son died childless in 1921, the villa passed down to other relatives and was eventually abandoned. I became fascinated with the Indianos and took photos of a number of them. (Maybe a separate thread?)

 

[Richard Smith]

Ruins of Castillo de Sarracin, just off the CF at Vega de Valcare.

 

[JMac56]

One ruin in front of another. (Villafranca Montes de Oca, April 2016)

 

[Camino Chrissy]

One ruin in front of another. (Villafranca Montes de Oca, April 2016)
View attachment 86074

Awww, JMac, don't say that!

 

[JMac56]

Awww, JMac, don't say that!

Thanks Chrissy. I seek out things that are old and distressed, like myself.

 

[Theatregal]

On the Primitivo, after Padrón. The only building left standing amidst the ruins of the Hospital de Montouto, a 14th century pilgrim's hostal that remained open until the early 20th century.

 

[Terry Callery]

On my French Camino about 5 km out of Hontanas del Camino, all pilgrims will pass under this archway (Arco de San Anton) directly on the route.

Built in the 14th century the Convento de San Anton served as a hospital for medieval pilgrims.
A sickness called Saint Antonoy's Fire was treated there - the symptoms were nausea, hallucinations and burning inside the body.

No-one knew it was caused by eating moldy rye bread - the cause was a fungus that was ingested.
The monks at this place prescribed plenty of exercise, lots of red wine and they fed the afflicted white bread!
Most of the hospital building are in ruins - but the archway is still standing after 700 years.

 

[Terry Callery]

This post made me remember about this book I have seen in the book stores.
He is a Maine (my State) resident!

A real sense of SAUDADE presented - a nostalgic longing for what once was, but a
sadness from the knowledge that it can never be again.

The photos present by everyone on this post are so emotive and powerful!

Brian Vanden Brink is one of America's most sought-after architectural photographers. He is also drawn to the mystery and unexpected beauty found in abandoned architecture. Here Vanden Brink captures and illuminates in stunning black and white images abandoned structures such as mills, bridges, grain elevators, churches, and storefronts-structures that once were important and useful. With text by historic preservation expert Howard Mansfield, this collection of photos grants permanence to places that may soon vanish forever.

Perhaps there is a book here? "Ruins on the Camino"

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

This ruin is not particularly beautiful but the building was in an earlier time. It is in Tiebas, on the Camino Aragonese. It is just south of Pamplona and a short stage away from Eunate and Puente de Reina.

 

[Mike Wells]

I was going to add St Anthony's abbey just before Castrojeriz, but that has been covered a few times already. So instead my contribution is not just a ruin but two ruins in one which are seldom visited even though they lie only 70m off the route of the CF between Portomarin and Palas de Rei. The iron age hill fort at Castromaior was made of wooden buildings surrounded by earth banks. The buildings are long gone, but when the Romans arrived they re-used the earth banks to provide protection for their own stone-built garrison. So what you see today are the preserved foundations of a Roman fort surrounded by the earth banking of its iron-age predecessor. Two ruins in one!

 

[Theatregal]

Castillo de Cornatel, Villavieja on the Invierno.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Astorga's open air display of a Roman mosaic tiled floor.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

This morning I chanced upon this video of an old church in the Basque country that had been converted into a home. It took me a little while to realize that it seemed appropriate for this thread. The video is almost 18 minutes long but the first five minutes may be all you need to see. The first three minutes show it as it is now followed by two minutes showing its ruined state and the reconstruction (although at 11 minutes in you can see the incredible way one of the rooms is accessed). The first two minutes is in subtitled Spanish and then it switches to English. As with other embedded Youtube videos here if you click on the arrow you get an embedded view but if you click on the superimposed title along the top you get Youtube where you can see a bigger picture.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Rick, this video is incredible! I loved it, so amazing...and I watched it to the end.

 

[Theatregal]

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing this @Rick of Rick and Peg !

 

[Theatregal]

Caminho Portugues da Costa. A narrow forest path between the town of Monte and the Monastery of São Romão do Neiva. The stone walls on either side of the path were mostly overgrown and fallen in places. A beautiful feature was a standing stone with a carved cross.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Camino Frances- August, 2014 Viana Ruins of Iglesia San Pedro.