SDC12 Ponferrada-Portomarin

Twelfth ride from Oekene (Roeselare) to Santiago de Compostela: from Ponferrada to Portomarin, 119 kilometers and 2161 meters of elevation.

You ride out of Ponferrada towards Lugo. Along winding roads, we periodically drive to the left and right of the A6. At first, it is a gentle incline, but from La Herrerias, it climbs more and more to reach a plateau in O. Cebreiro (km 50) at about 1330 meters. Pto El Poyo, 1337 meters, is the highest point of the day. You are in the Cordillera Cantabrica and leave the region of Castilla y León and enter the region Galicia, the region where Santiago de Compostela is also located. After 20 km on this plateau, there is a descent followed by rolling roads. In Sarria, you cross the 'rio Sarria'. There are still 25 km left to Portomarin.

Portomarín is a municipality in the Spanish province Lugo in the region Galicia and has 1,690 inhabitants. The municipality arose and further developed next to a Roman bridge over the 'rio Miño'. Portomarín is located on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. In 1962, the 'rio Miño' was dammed to create the Belesar reservoir. As a result, the original municipality of Portomarín was submerged. Many valuable historical buildings were carefully dismantled and were rebuilt stone by stone in the neighboring Monte do Cristo.

The most famous example is the Romanesque church of San Nicolás, of which every stone was numbered. The number can still be read on many stones. When the water level of the reservoir is low, remnants of old buildings can still be seen. The fortified church of San Nicolás looks like a fortress. It was built on behalf of the Order of Malta between the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century. The church is one of the most important Romanesque buildings in Galicia.