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Royal Hospital of Santiago de Montouto

A Fonsagrada, Fonsagrada, Lugo

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Royal Hospital of Santiago de Montouto

Monument · A Fonsagrada, Fonsagrada, Lugo

Founded in 1357 by order of Peter I of Castile, it was the first pilgrims' hospital in Galicia for those entering by the Camino Primitivo, which here split into two branches, that of Puebla de Burón and that of El Padrón, the shorter and more frequented one. In 1698, under Charles II, it was moved from its original site to its present one, an exposed height over a thousand metres up next to the dolmen of Montouto, where the two branches met. Its last hospitaller lived there rent-free in exchange for lodging pilgrims, and the hospital was abandoned in the mid-20th century, shortly after the Civil War. Since the 1990s a romería has been held there on the saint's day, with a chapel built at that time. Now in ruins, it still stands beside the dolmen and the course of the old road to Lugo.

Photo: Simon Burchell (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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