Camino de Santiago, Melide: Your Comprehensive Guide

You’re on the Camino de Santiago and arrived in Melide? Here’s a comprehensive guide for the must-see and especially must-eat in Melide! You’ll be surprised how much is there to discover (there’s a reason I managed to gain weight during the Camino 😀 )

We unfortunately only had a morning to discover Melide a bit since we were dead tired after we’ve reached. We had already crossed half of it and checked out a lot of restaurants on the way.

After arriving at our hotel, we just dropped dead and after some time I started my usual research: The must-eats of the town and where to find them! The answer was very clear: pulpo! But I’ll come to that later.

What to see

Let’s start with some facts first.

Melide is where the Camino Frances and Camino Primitivo meet (yes, there are multiple Caminos, these are not the only two). From here it is only another 55 km to Santiago. Melide started growing together with the increase of popularity of the Camino.

There are quite some things to see here, so it’s definitely worth staying the night! If you’re a pseudo-pilgrim with luggage even better. There are a lot of things to buy here!

Before reaching Melide, the first architectural highlight is the medieval bridge of the village of Furelos, which you have to cross on the Camino anyway. Don’t be in a hurry but spend some time there, it’s worth it!

There are multiple chapels with impressive architecture, e.g. the Capela de San Roque (Saint Roque chapel). It was built in 1949 but the façade is from the medieval St. Peter’s church. Just next to it, you find the oldest Gothic cross in Galicia, from the 14th century.

Most iconic for Melide is the Fuente de los Cuatro Caños which you find close to a roundabout. 

You can have a nice stroll through the old part of the town. On the Praza do Convento, you find two churches: The Convento Sancti Spiritu (Convent of Sancti Spiritus) and the Obra Pía de San Antón (St Anthony’s Chapel), which is attached to the Concelo de Melide (town hall). Close by is also the Museo Terra de Melide.

There was a fortress and city walls once which was built in the 14th century, which was destroyed though in the 15th during the Irmandiña Revolts. Later, the Convento Sancti Spiritu was built using these stones. The convent itself was established in the 14th century, rebuilt in the 15th century after it was destroyed and additions were made during the 18th century. In the interior of the church, you find sculptures of both baroque and neoclassicism.

Obra Pía de San Antón was built in 1671. As mentioned, it is attached to a baroque country house which serves as Town Hall since 1960. There is, unfortunately, nothing left of the old interior of the town hall.

Just next to the town hall, I visited the small store Xebre with local liquors and sausages, which I can only recommend! I bought herbal and coffee liquor as well as amazing sausages – which I then had to carry all the way to the next town since we had already left our luggage with the luggage transfer. At least, I was able to get to know a bit more of the real pilgrim experience since my backpack was otherwise quite lightweight (= a joke).

Don’t miss out on the viewing point O Castelo and the Capela do Carmen (Chapel of the Virgin of Carmen). This is where the old castelo stood in the 14th century but there’s nothing left of it. You have a beautiful panoramic view over the town and in case you stay overnight, do visit it in the night time as well!

What to eat

Melide is a paradise for foodies like me! They praise themselves for their good cuisine due to the exceptional quality of ingredients and good chefs.

The speciality here is Pulpo á Feira, boiled octopus, slightly salted with olive oil and a bit of paprika powder. Melide is one of the best places to have this dish despite not being a coastal region, which has to do with the quality of water in which it is cooked. Best to have it with the typical Galician bread, cachelos (boiled potatoes) and red wine.

For that, we went to the Pulperia Ezequiel (https://www.pulperiaezequiel.com/) which was on top of the list in terms of reviews. It had an albergue attached as well. We reached very early as we’re used to having early dinners and were a bit sceptical since it was empty. Dinner time in Galicia, however, starts late, after 9 pm and we witnessed how it quickly filled. On every table, you could find at least one pulpo! They also serve café hecho en olla, a coffee made in a typical Galician pot.

Don’t be surprised of getting your red wine served in a bowl, by the way, that’s apparently typical Galician. We have only experienced it here though.

One thing I found on their menu was churrasco de cerdo, which are pork ribs served with a sausage and fries – I just had to try that! It simply blew my mind… the ribs were great but for the sausage alone I would’ve walked another 20 km.

Be it pulpo or churrasco, one thing about the Galician cuisine is that they don’t use many spices apart from salt. Living in India, I’m so used to all these different flavours of the spices that it tasted a bit boring at first, but what makes it special is that it lets you focus much more on the actual flavour of the meat or fish.

As a dessert, we’ve ordered the tarta de orujo, which is a tart covered with a liquor-based syrup. Orujo is one of the local liquors you can find in Galicia which is made of grapes after fermentation.

If you are looking for some smaller Tapas bars, on the same road as our restaurant, you find multiple of those which looked very nice as well.

Another speciality you find here is the Arzúa-Ulloa cheese, although this is not a speciality from Melide itself but from Arzúa. Not to be missed though!

Another fundamental element in many of the dishes is trout.

That’s not all though, let’s move on to the many sweet dishes! There are a couple of pastries and cakes which are only made in Melide and which you don’t find fresh ones anywhere else.

• Melindres (sugar-topped pastries) which are named “the most delicious treat in Melide”. They are made from butter, flour, sugar, lemon, anise and eggs.
• Amendoados (almond cakes)
• Ricos (butter-based pastries)

I got a pack of each in a bakery for 5 EUR per pack, which lasted the entire trip. Our absolute favourite was the amendoados!

Festivals and events

During Easter on Viernes Santo (Good Friday), there are multiple processions to witness: O Perdon (Forgiveness) in the morning, Santo Entierro (Burial) in the afternoon and the for locals most emotional one, Virxe de Soidade (Virgin of Solitude) in the evening.

As a side note: You can find small figurines with these outfits in some tourist stores. When I saw that first, I was obviously first a bit taken aback due to the similar outfits of the KKK. Only when reading about it I got to know the meaning of these figurines.

If you pass during Corpus Christi in June, you should definitely not miss out on the Praza do Convento, which is laid out with flowers during this time!

The largest festival is the celebration of San Roque, simply known as San Roque Melide, which lasts for one week starting on 15^th August. During this time, you can find a Medieval Pilgrim Market there, including musical performances and cultural programmes.

On the second Sunday of May, there is the Repostería de la Terra de Melide (also known as Fiesta del Melindre) on the Praza do Convento, which is basically a Sweet-Cake and Traditional Pastry-Making Festival. The intention of the festival is to protect, promote and also revive the traditional way of baking, to ensure that it survives in the future.

There’s a fruit and cheese market every Sunday morning where you get the chance to snack through samples of local cheeses and chorizos!

Where to stay

We stayed at the Pensión Berenguela, a two-star hotel. What makes it look a bit odd is that it is in a back lane and has only very small windows which are close to the floor. There’s anyways not much view from a back lane…

The room was modern and clean though, so no problem at all.

The breakfast was served in the attached bar. There was no buffet but they served plates with sliced ham, jam etc. What I loved most was the huge and quite fresh croissants with a hint of a sugar coat.

The staff there was incredibly sweet. We’ve watched some other guests who must’ve spent the evening in the bar and the waitresses cheerfully chatted away with them and when leaving hugged and kissed them as if they were good friends.

There are some very good albergues as well as far as I’ve read.