Knights, Bridges and the need for pickled ham.

 Today we are mostly concerned with Hospital de Orbigo. It is a bridging point on the Orbigo, a 162km river that will end its days joining the Esla.




We have history galore here. In 456 the armies of Theuderic I, the Merovingian king, fought the forces of Rechiae, King of Gallaecia [basically Iberia]. Rechiae was wounded and died later that year - but you know all of that so we will move on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechiar


In 1434, the Leonese knight Suero de Quiñones held a tournament in which he or one of his companions challenged all men of equal rank who wished to cross the bridge here to a jousting tournament, Suero holding this bridge in the name of unrequited love. As 1434 was a Holy Year in Santiago there were a lot of people crossing the camino and it was claimed the knight broke 300 lances between 11th July and 9th August. The event is recreated in the first week of June.






Fast forward to the 16th century. The Knights Hospitaller established a pilgrim hospital on the west bank of the river. In the 19th century the locals broke both ends of the bridge to stop Napoleon’s troops from using it.




Today 950 people make Hospital de Orbigo home. According to wiki the locals are just mad for trout, having it with ham, pickled or in soups. The town website https://www.hospitaldeorbigo.com/ has a webcam which seems to have been blocked.




We seem to have missed ‘the bridge.’ It can be seen from the N-120. It is good. I’m not sure how this could be improved as old bridges go. 501 reviews average it on 4.7 which makes you wonder why three people would give it 1 st4r. I mean 1 star. 1 star is for a couple of bricks which cross a stream. Mar Rosas gives a range of reviews, as well as this one star. Most are to the north of here. La Piccola Stanza of Gijon was intrigued by the 3 star review they got as it appeared on a Tuesday - when they were closed.
We must not be delayed by such trifles. Onwards to Astorga.



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