Santa Maria del Conxo Monastery and Cathédral de Lugo
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
308 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 07
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.
308 km from Santiago de Compostela to Santiago de Compostela, about 5 h 07 of riding. On the way it passes Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes, Chemin de l’Intérieur, Cathédral de Lugo and back through Chemin de l’Intérieur. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Santa Maria del Conxo Monastery
Conxo sits on the southern edge of Santiago de Compostela, in the green hollows that surround the pilgrim city, and its monastery has a history that is quieter and sadder than the cathedral's. The old religious house was repurposed in the nineteenth century as a psychiatric hospital, one of the first of its kind in Galicia, and it spent much of the modern era in that role. The complex sits among trees and low stone walls, and what you notice most is how calm and shut away it feels, only a couple of kilometres from the crowds around the Obradoiro square.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Santa Maria del Conxo Monastery is where the day begins. Next is Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes.
2. Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes
Pilgrims walking the Camino del Norte toward Santiago reach Sobrado dos Monxes tired and footsore, and the sight of the huge granite Baroque façade of the monastery, rising out of a quiet Galician village, must feel like a miracle. Sobrado was founded as a monastery in the tenth century, became Cistercian in the twelfth, and grew into one of the most powerful abbeys in Galicia. After the dissolution of the monasteries in the nineteenth century, it fell into ruin, until Cistercian monks returned in the 1950s and began restoring it. Today they run a pilgrim hostel in part of the buildings.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chemin de l’Intérieur.
3. Chemin de l’Intérieur
Pilgrims have been crossing this green upland of Galicia on their way to Santiago de Compostela for more than a thousand years, and the scallop-shell waymarkers still guide them through the villages around Vilalba and Guitiriz. This is the Terra Chá, the flat land, a high plateau in the north of the province of Lugo where the northern pilgrim routes come down from the Cantabrian coast toward the interior. The Ways of Saint James in northern Spain are part of a UNESCO listing that recognises not only the famous French Way but also the coastal and inland routes that run through this region.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 105 km into the recorded legs you reach Chemin de l’Intérieur. Next is Cathédral de Lugo.
4. Cathédral de Lugo
Lugo is one of those cities that tells you its age before you have parked. A ring of Roman wall, two kilometres of it and still complete, circles the old town, and walking along the top is the best way to understand why UNESCO listed it. The Romans founded Lucus Augusti here at the end of the first century before Christ, drawn by hot springs on the Miño river, and the baths are still in use by the riverside. The wall's gates, rebuilt and re-cut many times, let you walk in and out of the old quarter as people have for nearly two thousand years.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Santa Maria del Conxo Monastery closes the day.
Leg by leg
Santa Maria del Conxo Monastery to Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes
Santa Maria del Conxo Monastery → Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes to Chemin de l’Intérieur
Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes → Chemin de l’Intérieur is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chemin de l’Intérieur to Cathédral de Lugo
Chemin de l’Intérieur → Cathédral de Lugo is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cathédral de Lugo to back through Chemin de l’Intérieur
Cathédral de Lugo → back through Chemin de l’Intérieur is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chemin de l’Intérieur to back through Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes
back through Chemin de l’Intérieur → back through Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes to Santa Maria del Conxo Monastery
back through Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes → Santa Maria del Conxo Monastery is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.