Tourism O Cebreiro

O Cebreiro is located 16 km from La Portela de Valcarce along the Camino de Santiago.

O Cebreiro is one of the great landmarks of the Jacobean pilgrimage; Is the best known point for pilgrims arriving from central Europe. Everyone knows more or less pieces of his history, which have consecrated him forever in the whole world. Of particular note is the legend of the Holy Grail and the Eucharistic Miracle. And all this because many people have dedicated their life to deepen the history of O Cebreiro and to spread it beyond our borders.

Once the monks left O Cebreiro, it can be said that everything disappeared with them. It is the logical end after observing the trajectory of the last centuries of its history. And the glory and power and prestige as well as the material part were destroyed, since in the first half of the twentieth century the temple and the inn were practically in ruins. The church was deserted, with its roof fallen and leaks. In the rest of the town, people continued to live in their pallozas. It was 1962.

In 1963, after the visit of Manuel Chamoso Lamas and Pons Sorolla Arnau, the General Directorate of Architecture proposed the restoration of the historic artistic complex, beginning, of course, by the church and the inn, and building new houses for the neighbors . A palloza was also prepared to erect it as "Ethnological Museum". The Hospedería was masterfully restored and opened to the public in 1966.

The town passed to the General Direction of Fine Arts, with soothes in the museum-palloza. Elías Valiña comments in a posthumous article published in number three of the magazine LVCENSIA, that "again, unfortunately, O Cebreiro is being victim of another nefarious cultural confiscation. Uncontrolled, abandoned, without any guiding norm, arbitrary shots are raised around the houses and pallozas ... More than 15,000 visitors who saw it in 1988 are witnesses.

Fortunately, all these small inconveniences have been solved little by little. Sample of this new awakening are the thousands of pilgrims and pilgrims who congregate annually in O Cebreiro on 8 and 9 September, in honor of Our Lady and the Holy Miracle. The area becomes a focus of spirituality in the Camino de Santiago. On the other hand, the events that Galicia lived in 1993, Holy Year Compostela with the "Xacobeo 93", had positive repercussions in the development of O Cebreiro.

It was endowed with the necessary infrastructures to be able to give the adequate answer to the present necessities of the modern society and of the new pilgrims. The primitive inn, which did not cover the great demand for lodging, was complemented by a large shelter in which the pilgrims will have covered all their needs. These events mark the beginning of a new phase for O Cebreiro. Let us hope that, little by little, it will regain the ancient splendor through which it has crossed our borders and remain in this way a place that radiates life and desire to live.