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 ...