Our villages
Our villages
The historical and architectural heritage of Las Médulas is an entertaining tourist experience to see in each of its villages.
Be prepared to visit as many as you can, because they are home to traditional architecture made from the materials of the surrounding landscape. The walls and roofs of the oldest dwellings are supported by the same rocks of the surroundings (schist, quartzite and slate) and the wood of its trees supports balconies that extend into corridors protected from the rain and wind, but opening the dwelling to the sun.
In the mountains or by streams and rivers, at the foot of old roads used by traders, Roman armies or pilgrims, every village you see in Las Médulas is waiting for you with a surprise. Some are based on the tradition of a wine press, the old mill, oven or wash house. Ethnographic elements that give an insight into the way of life attached to the territory and the resources obtained from it. In fact, the abundant slate is still one of the most thriving economic engines in some of the villages.
The villages scattered around Las Médulas are a must-see, boasting traditional architecture, such as that which is being recovered in Ferradillo and the charming village of Paradela de Muces.
The surroundings of villages such as Villarrando, La Campañana, Villavieja and El Carril, are ideal to enjoy the age-old presence of leafy forests, among which the centenary chestnut trees stand out.
Water is inseparable from the land in many of the villages. Some are as impressive as the Pumares reservoir near Puente de Domingo Flórez. Others, such as San Pedro de Trones, overlook the meeting of the most important watercourses of Las Médulas, such as the Sil and Cabrera rivers. Salas de la Ribera has a river bank and so does Lago de Carucedo, but next to the lake with which it shares the same name.
Underground, the villages also have their own charms, such as the underground caves around La Barosa. Many of the villages of Las Médulas are worth visiting simply to walk along their ancient paths. Some, such as Villalibre de la Jurisdicción, are an ancestral place of passage where the Roman road, the Winter Way of Saint James and the Royal Road have overlapped.
The historical and architectural heritage of Las Médulas becomes an entertaining tourist experience to see in each of its towns.
The walls and roofs of the oldest dwellings are supported by the same rocks of the surroundings (schist, quartzite and slate) and the wood of its trees supports balconies that extend into corridors protected from the rain and wind, but opening the dwelling to the sun.
In the mountains or by streams and rivers, at the foot of old roads used by traders, Roman armies or pilgrims, every village you see in Las Médulas is waiting for you with a surprise. Some are based on the tradition of a wine press, the old mill, oven or wash house. Ethnographic elements that give an insight into the way of life attached to the territory and the resources obtained from it. In fact, the abundant slate is still one of the most thriving economic engines in some of the villages.
El Bierzo wine is making its mark in villages such as Priaranza del Bierzo, whose vineyards, together with those of Santalla del Bierzo and Puente de Domingo Flórez, have become the cradle of production of new wines that are already adding quality to the Bierzo DO.
Every village in Las Médulas has its own rural attractions and panoramic qualities that make it a place to be enraptured by the outstanding scenery that surrounds it. Las Médulas are their greatest treasure and each one maintains a close link with its history and with the cultural heritage that gold mining left in the landscape of each village.
Explore our villages
Carucedo
Las Médulas
Lago de
Carucedo
Villarrando
La Barosa
El Carril
La Campañana
Salas de Ribera
Puente de
Domingo Flórez
Las Vegas
de Yeres
Yeres
Robledo de
Sobrecastro
Castroquilame
San Pedro
de Trones
Priaranza
del Bierzo
Villavieja
Santalla
del Bierzo
Ferradillo
Villalibre de
la Jurisdicción
Paradela
de Muces
Carucedo
In any of its villages (Las Médulas, La Barosa, Campañana, El Carril, Lago de Carucedo, Villarrando and Carucedo) it comes as a surprise that its inhabitants speak Galician-Leonese. When you hear ¡Bem-vindo a Las Médulas! you will be listening to a language that is one of the most authentic hallmarks of Las Médulas.
The village of Carucedo, which in turn gives its name to the municipality, has a country feel and is a place that causes astonishment due to the large amount of water it gathers. The Campañana reservoir and Lake Carucedo are among its most popular spots.
Although the foundation of the village of Carucedo is medieval and integrated into the kingdom of León, it is known that there was a permanent population around Lake Carucedo since its millenary origin. The settlement was next to the lake that arose during the mining presence thanks to a barrier of fine tailings that were expelled, through the washing of the ore, towards areas outside the mine such as the basin of the river Sil. Deposited on fluvial sands and conglomerates, they ended up blocking the Balao stream, the natural outlet to the river Sil, and thus the lake was created.
Well communicated, Carucedo is located 20 kilometres from Ponferrada and 124 kilometres from the city of León. It is a village that exhibits traditional architecture with stone walls and slate roofs of its dwellings. The church of San Pedro, situated on a rocky escarpment, is a must-see.
The temple, apart from being an obligatory stop for pilgrims on the Winter Way of Saint James, boasts of having received a distinguished visitor, the French writer Jules Verne, while he travelled this pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, which let him overcome the winter difficulties of the more frequented French Way of Saint James.
Las Médulas
The village centre of typical houses is divided into two districts. The one to the north is organised around the fountain and washing place, a traditional urban space for neighbourhood gatherings, while the southern neighbourhood culminates in the corner where the church of San Simón and San Judas Tadeo stands out.
The village is home to two of the most enriching information spaces in Las Médulas: the Arqueological Learning Centre, located at the entrance to the village, which explains how the gold was extracted and the changes that the mining activity produced in the landscape, and the Las Médulas Visitor Reception Centre. The latter, located a few metres after the church, is also the starting point for guided visits to Las Médulas and for routes such as the Senda de las Valiñas, a circular itinerary that follows one of the last mining areas where you can see the spectacular galleries of the Cuevona and the Cueva Encantada (Enchanted Cave).
Lake Carucedo
It is five kilometres in diameter, up to nine metres deep, and is surrounded by an attractive beach on the lake shore. Lago de Carucedo is a village of well-kept architecture and the starting point of the hiking route to the Roman domus of Pedreiras de Lago.
A dip in the waters of the lake is to literally immerse oneself in the gold-making history of Las Médulas, as the accumulation of the earth removed from the valley of the river Balao gave rise to the lake of gold. Natural causes such as the melting of nearby glacial areas also contributed to its clogging.
The lake adds to its recreational, tourist and leisure uses, the exclusivity of being one of the most valuable wetlands of El Bierzo. It serves as a resting place for migratory water birds such as mallards, shovelers, teal and wigeons. The lake is also a refuge for great crested grebes, grebes, common coots and great cormorants. Among the reed beds and riparian forest on its banks you can make out the stylised figure of a grey heron, listen to the song of Cetti’s Warbler, the fleeting movement of the buzzard or the discreet colouring of the pipit. While white wagtails wade confidently along the shore.
A dip in the waters of the lake is to literally immerse oneself in the gold-making history of Las Médulas, as the accumulation of the earth removed from the valley of the river Balao gave rise to the lake of gold. Natural causes such as the melting of nearby glacial areas also contributed to its clogging.
Carissia’s tears:
Legend has it that its waters are the tears of the undine Carissia, an aquatic nymph who fell in love with the Roman general Titus Carissio, conqueror of El Bierzo.
When her love was not reciprocated, the nymph wept so much that the lake arose in the same place where the mythical Lucerne, the only Spanish city that resisted the conquering advance of the emperor Charlemagne towards the tomb of St. James, once stood. It is popularly said that every dawn on the night of San Juan, with the first rays of sunlight hitting the water, you can see the remains of the city and even the mythological character emerging from them in search of a new love.
Villarrando
A thicket of vegetation that serves as a refuge for wild cats, roe deer and martens, among other mammals, and over which birds such as the booted eagle and the honey buzzard fly. The village, located between Lake Carucedo and the village of Campañana, is home to the source of the Oreixai stream that feeds the lake.
It is divided into two districts, one located halfway up the hillside with exceptional views of the lake of Carucedo, and the district of Forcadas, which is closer to the village of Campañana and concentrates most of the population.
La Barosa
A tunnel connects it with Ourense, leaving the river Sil on one side.
It is the birthplace of the poet and humanist Luis López Álvarez, winner of the Castilla y León Prize for Literature and author of the poem Los Comuneros.
El Carril
The church dedicated to the Apostle St. James is located at the highest point of the village. The surrounding area is encircled by holm oak trees and the crops of the village are spread out in well-tended vegetable gardens that go down to the banks of the river Sil. Fishermen and bathers are a common sight here, as in the summer the shore offers attractive refreshment areas.
La Campañana
It enjoys magnificent views and gives its name to the Campañana reservoir. The descent to the reservoir, also known as the Salto de Cornatel due to its hydroelectric use is occupied by land used for dry farming. The water collected by the reservoir, which comes from the Miño-Sil river basin, is used for hydroelectric purposes and is the main source of water for Lake Carucedo.
Salas de Ribera
It offers full enjoyment of the river Sil in the immediate vicinity of the village. The church of San Andrés Apóstol, associated with the Templar commandery of Ponferrada by order of King Alfonso IX of León in 1211, and the hermitage of Cristo de la Vega are well worth a visit.
Among its most valuable natural heritage is a palaeontological site of the Silurian graptolite fossil, which lived 424 million years ago, located on a slate slope. It stands out as a unique place in the world for its extraordinary concentration of synrabdosomes, or unique spiral-shaped clusters of graptolites that allowed them to inhabit deep ocean waters.
As an exceptional site, it deserved to be declared a Point of Geological Interest.
Puente de Domingo Flórez
The streams that feed the Cabrera river basin were an essential source of water for Roman gold mining. In fact, it fed six canals, which together were 460 kilometres long.
Puente de Domingo Flórez takes its name from the bridge over the river of archaic Roman origin. The village neighbourhoods preserve houses with the typical architecture of schist, boulder and quartzite stone walls with wooden corridors covering the upper part of the main façade and topped with slate roofs. Each neighbourhood is linked both to the river and to the territory, as they are staggered on the slopes along the river bank. Some of them, such as the old bridge district, maintain their architecture with the typical stone of barruelo.
The ‘Luis del Olmo’ Roman Canals Learning Centre is found in Puente de Domingo Flórez, which offers a didactic model, allowing the visitor to understand the magnitude of the network of canals that supplied the mine of Las Médulas. The pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela known as the Winter Way of Saint James, passes through the village. The Chapel of San Roque is a stop for pilgrims and an attractive urban enclave for visitors to the village.
Puente de Domingo Flórez can be reached by train as the railway station of Ouereño (in Ourense) is barely one kilometre from the village centre. Trains that connect with O Barco de Valdeorras, a village in Ourense located at the bottom of the valley of the river Sil, on the railway line that links A Coruña with Madrid, stop here.
Its hamlet is divided into the districts of La Carballa and El Soto on the one hand, and then extends into the districts of El Molino, Los Balcones and La Portela. Its heritage includes the church of Santa María, the typical popular architecture of its houses, which even conserves an emblazoned house, a dovecote with a characteristic circular structure, and an old mill.
Las Vegas de Yeres
Its hamlet is divided into the Carballa and Soto neighbourhoods first, and then extends to the Molino, Balcones and Portela neighbourhoods. Its heritage includes the church of Santa María, the typical popular architecture of its houses, which even preserves a house with a coat of arms, a dovecote with a characteristic circular structure, as well as an old mill.
Yeres
Located on the northern slope of the Cabrera river, the village of Yeres stands out for its appearance as a rural mountain village with popular architecture distributed in the two neighbourhoods that climb up the hillside near the area known as Campo de Braña.
In its territory is the interesting hillfort of La Corona, located on a promontory between two streams, whose use is linked to the origin of Yeres, dating back to the beginning of gold mining in the mountains. At the same time, it is a magnificent enclave for approaching the Roman canals that, from the southern area of Las Médulas, mainly transported water from the Cabrera River to the mining area. The power of water as a hydraulic force led to the success of the gold mining at Las Médulas, as it was used in all the mining tasks.
In fact, the canals bear witness to the great work carried out by the Roman mining industry to transport water from the rivers to the mountains whose deposits were located at a very high topographic position in relation to the rivers.
To achieve this, they had to overcome the unevenness imposed by nature by maintaining a constant slope in a layout where the hand-carved canals were up to 1.20 metres wide. At the same time, they managed to navigate the rugged terrain in an extraordinary manner, with sections carved directly into the rock and, when necessary, crossing the rocky outcrops through tunnels. The catchment of the river Cabrera from the C-0 canal was in the area of Odollo and was taken 45 kilometres to the mining operations near Las Médulas, such as those of El Médalo and Santalavilla, in the vicinity of Yeres.
In the vicinity of the village is the Reirigo mining sector, the local gold mining area with numerous galleries distributed in three mining areas: Reirigo, Llagua de Yeres and Las Pedrices.
Robledo de Sobrecastro
Its church is dedicated to Santa Leocadia but it is the patron saint, Santiago the Apostle, who is celebrated. The urban heritage includes three fountains that have been carefully restored in keeping with the rural architecture.
Castroquilame
The village of Castroquilame has the most important early medieval architectural remains in the area. This is a Romanesque tympanum embedded in a wall of the church and decorated with a pantocrator.
This village is famous for the honey from its beehives and for being a good place to try the cuturrús. An artisanal liqueur from Las Médulas made from marc brandy, nuts (hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts), berries such as sloe berries and aromatic herbs (rosemary and thyme) and whose archaic production dates back to the culture that travelled along the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago de Compostela.
San Pedro de Trones
A curious temple which, due to its dedication, was built with a peculiar octagonal star-shaped ground plan on which the red and white granite stone walls are built.
The temple is located at the entrance to the village on a hilltop and was built by the dean of Plasencia Cathedral, on the same site where there was another medieval hermitage, when he retired to live in solitude in his native village. Inside it houses a carving of the Virgin of the Star similar to the original one in Plasencia Cathedral.
Priaranza del Bierzo
On the hillsides above, it is the chestnut trees that take root, centuries old, giving personality to the mountainous landscape of this municipality near the city of Ponferrada.
Honey production and the municipality’s agricultural tradition, based mainly on the cultivation of fruit trees such as apple and cherry trees, is experiencing a revival thanks to the production of quality wines. They are the result of the work of young winegrowers committed to bringing new visions of the vineyard and its relationship with the environment to the El Bierzo designation of origin, recovering old vineyards and practising sustainable viticulture.
New wines that are part of an initiative that revives the agricultural landscape around the traditional wine varieties such as Godello, one of the most adapted to the orography of the territory, together with Mencía, Garnacha Tintorera and others, such as Estaladiña and Merenzao, which, although less known, provide exclusive nuances extracted from the landscapes of the El Bierzo DO.
In Priaranza del Bierzo you can see some of the old wine presses where the grapes were pressed to obtain the must by means of a mechanical lever system using a large beam of chestnut or walnut wood.
Villavieja
Today, as in the past, walkers make a stop in this attractive rural village to visit the church of Santiago. Its simple façade features a sundial and inside there is a 12th century carving of the Apostle, which was found in Cornatel castle. This fortress is a landmark in the local landscape as it stands on a rocky promontory next to the ravine carved out by the Rioferreiros stream.
The land of the locality is crossed by the canals on the northern slopes of the Montes Aquilianos that transported water to the mining exploitation of Las Médulas. Meanwhile, its recovered popular heritage stands out with the fountain, an oven and the old school converted into the first hostel for pilgrims starting the Camino de Invierno a Santiago de Compostela.
Santalla del Bierzo
The village, located just 10 kilometres from Ponferrada, enjoys privileged panoramic views of the area from its viewpoint and a lot of history linked to the transit along the Camino Real.
The Barrancas de Santalla are one of its most striking corners because their orange-coloured walls of clay and sand rise vertically up to a hundred metres. Its striking appearance, shaped by erosion, is an attractive reason to take a bike ride or go for a walk to discover it. On crossing the village, where you can enjoy the typical balconies of the houses as you pass through, you will see the signpost indicating the route.
Oaks and chestnut trees, as well as towering poplars accompany the path, on the edge of which you can see an old mill, until it ends next to the imposing cliffs and a rest area with an extraordinary panoramic view of the cliffs. It is a good idea to extend the trail for a kilometre to enjoy the exciting crossing of the suspension bridge at Villaverde de la Abadía.
Ferradillo
Nevertheless, it is well worth a visit, as the efforts of the Association ‘Amigos de Ferradillo’ have revitalised the small village centre by recovering the traditional architecture of its stone and slate houses and a curious dovecote.
Ferradillo is a place along which some of the paths that run through Las Médulas, such as the one that leads to the nearby village of Paradela de Muces, six kilometres away, passing through the foothills of the Cruz de la Peña. A mountain whose summit is covered by a unique copse of yew trees with some specimens that are more than half a century old.
The village is a historical place because of the activity that once gave its inhabitants a trade around the snow. It was accumulated during the winter in snow pits where it was pressed between layers of straw to be preserved for long periods of time until the summer. This was when, on horseback, it was transported and sold in Ponferrada and other villages in the El Bierzo region as a means of preserving foodstuffs and also for the use of ice in medicinal treatments.
In the vicinity of Ferradillo, “those from the mountains”, as those who escaped from Franco’s repression or the maquis were called, took refuge. During the post-war period, they found refuge in the mountains near their place of origin. Some also organised themselves through guerrilla political strategy. This is why this mountainous area was colloquially known as “Little Russia”, as it was home to the “Federation of Guerrillas of León and Galicia”, made up of 24 refugees of different ideologies, but united by their anti-Franco struggle.
Villalibre de la Jurisdicción
If there is a Neighbourhood Council with an original meeting place, it is that of this rural area, as it meets in the Santo Cristo de la Vera Cruz hermitage. This small church stands out for its stone façade topped by a belfry.
The large house with the noble coat of arms of the Yebra family, a symbol of rural nobility, alongside traditional architecture featuring wide wooden balconies acting as galleries, and the abundance of river pebbles used in public spaces such as fountains and troughs, make this village, located beside the Roman road that was used to transport the gold extracted from Las Médulas, distinctive.
Paradela de Muces
The village is surrounded by lush forests of chestnut trees, oaks and old holm oaks and offers impressive bird’s eye views over the lake of Carucedo and its surroundings. It is also recommended because the rural area offers one of the ways to reach the pre-Roman settlement of Castro de Peña del Hombre.
Inspiration for your trip
Las Médulas form a Cultural Space that begins with the union between water and the human hand to lead it into the interior of the mountains.
In our villages, the inherited culture and traditions have been preserved and are proudly passed on to the new generations.
The personalised information they provide according to the interests of visitors is the best way to ensure an unforgettable stay.
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