Camino Primitivo - Etapa 5, Berducedo to Grandas de Salime

17.4.2013

20km (a mercifully short day)

La Iglesia de Santa María Magdelena (17th century) in La Mesa.

Capilla de Santa Marina de Buspol. The scent of all those fresh flowers on the altar in the cool, damp morning mountain air was stunning. 

Un peregrino en la montaña.

After the short but steep climb to Buspol, the whole morning was a delightful, cool, easy descent through thick pine forests on the shady side of the mountains, wending down toward Embalse de Salime - the dam on the Río Navia that created this lake. (Of course, what goes down, must go back up, and the afternoon was a sunny, hot climb up from the river valley to Grandas. There must always be a little suffering.)

The dam was built in 1954 and was the engineering marvel of the region, though it also flooded the old town if Salime. 

The town of Grandas de Salime was established in the 12th century and prospered from gold mining. It was made an obligatory Camino stop in the early 13th century. 

The church, La Collegiata de El Salvador, was begun in the 12th century, and still has its original Romanesque tower and façade, along with Gothic and Neo-classical expansions. The arcaded porches were for sheltering Camino pilgrims. 

A fairy-tale house in Grandas.