Camino de Santiago, Arzúa: Your Comprehensive Guide

Arzúa is the last large stopping point for many pilgrims on the way to Santiago. From here onward, it’s “only” 39km till Santiago. After this point, you will only find smaller villages.

What to see

There’s not as much to see like in the other places and quickly to cover.

There’s the chapel of Magdalena, the parish church of Santiago and some beautiful country houses.

The chapel of Magdalena was founded in the 14^th century as was part of an old convent of Augustinians to serve pilgrims. It now serves as a cultural hall and meeting point for cultural activities.

What to eat

There is only one answer to this: Cheese! Arzúa-Ulloa cheese to be precise.

Out of four Galician cow’s milk cheeses recognized as Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Queso de Arzúa is one of them (the others being San Simon da Costa, Queso de Cebreiro and Queso de Tetilla). This certification means that they must be made using traditional production methods. This way, the cheeses taste the same as they have for decades and can’t be replicated with other products than those produced in Galicia. Hence you can imagine, why this cheese is the must have when visiting Arzúa or this region. One popular combination is to have it with quince paste.

Other traditional Galician dishes to try are raxo (spicy and peppery chopped pork loin), capón, cocido gallego (pork stew) and lacón con grelos (boiled ham with turnip greens and potatoes), pulpo  (octopus) and diverse fish like hake.

One must try, which I unfortunately missed out on, are the filloas (Galician crepes).

I can recommend Casa Teodora, one of the older restaurants in the area and very popular, with a beautiful ambiance.

Where to stay

We happened to stay in Casa Teodora as well, which I can absolutely recommend. If you are looking for albergues, there are a lot of them on calle de Lugo. There is one public one on calle Cima do Lugar, an old stone building constructed in the 15^th century, previously a pilgrim hospital and seven private albergues. Apart from that there are a lot of hostels, hotels and tourism houses.

Festivals

If you happen to be there in the first weekend of March, don’t miss out on the annual cheese festival! Dairy farmers bring cheese from all over Spain and you can snack through the market on the centre plaza, tasting all these different cheeses. It’s also promoting the locally made cheese I’ve mentioned above.