Estéiles de la Balouta and Cathedrale de Mondonedo
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
354 km
Riding-time estimate
4 h 51
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 354 km round trip from Puente de Domingo Flórez - roughly 4 h 51 in the saddle. It goes by way of Roman Walls of Lugo, Cathedrale de Mondonedo and back through Roman Walls of Lugo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Scenic road chapters
Roman Walls of Lugo → Cathedrale de Mondonedo
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 66 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
Length
60 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Estéiles de la Balouta
Estéiles is the local word for waste, the spoil heaps of rock and gravel that Roman gold miners left behind, and in this corner of León and the Sil country the name has stuck to the landscape itself. Nobody lives on a spoil heap, but the shapes are unmistakable once your eye is trained: pale, steep-sided banks of washed stones, too regular to be natural, with young oak and chestnut growing over them. This stop is a good place to get that eye in.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Estéiles de la Balouta is where the day begins. Next is Roman Walls of Lugo.
2. Roman Walls of Lugo
Lugo is the only city in the world still completely surrounded by intact Roman walls. Built in the late third century, when the Roman Empire was under pressure from invasions, the walls run for more than two kilometres around the old town, with dozens of semicircular towers and ten gates, some Roman and some added later. They are wide enough at the top for a walkway, and walking the full circuit, with views over the rooftops of the old town on one side and the modern city on the other, is the best way to get a sense of the place. The walls were listed by UNESCO in 2000.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Roman Walls of Lugo comes up about 117 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cathedrale de Mondonedo.
3. Cathedrale de Mondonedo
Mondoñedo is a small cathedral city in the north of Galicia, tucked into a green valley of the Masma river between the Cantabrian coast and the hills of the interior. With barely five thousand people it is one of the smallest places in Spain to have a cathedral, and the building is the reason the town exists. It was begun in the late twelfth century and finished over several centuries, with a Romanesque core, Gothic vaults and a Baroque west front with two towers. Inside, there are medieval wall paintings in the cloister and a fine stone choir, and the whole is built from the grey local granite, which turns green with lichen and gold in the evening sun.