Idiomas

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Accesos directos

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Buscador

Buscar

Active Tourism

• On foot
• By mountainbike

Camino de Cantonad

Introduction

An ancient path leaves the village of Lezana and leads to the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Cantonad, the patron saint of the Valle de Mena since the seventeenth century. Each year on the 8th of May, the Menes people follow this path as they arrive on foot from their various villages having decided to make the pilgrimage to the sanctuary and participate in the civil and religious festivities commemorating the day of Our Lady of Cantonad.

Tradition, culture and popular religion all play a part in this event, the secular celebration of which has contributed to the feeling of collective identity among the inhabitants of the Valle de Mena. The sanctuary and its festival are considered to be assets or elements at the very bosom of the community and, as such, part of the common patrimony.

This situation is made clear by the way in which the religious and festive acts are interrelated, and the fact that the church itself is situated in direct contact with the meadow where the festivities take place.

Technical Specifications

A description of the route

Leave Lezana village square and continue, without deviating, along the concrete road that leads uphill to the cemetery and old-people’s home. After passing the old-people’s home there is a first barrier, on the left, giving access to the field where the path to Cantonad continues.

Continue across the field, again without deviating from the path, and through a second barrier leading into a bigger field in which there is a single, enormous and rounded holm oak tree.

Following the footpath, go right across the field and out through a third barrier onto another concrete road, coming from the village of Vivanco and from which point the sanctuary can be seen.

Continue uphill to where the path opens out on to the clearing of the sanctuary, from where you can continue up to the chapel itself and enjoy views of the valley from the encircling stone walls.

Picking up the path again, leave the church grounds and immediately take a small path that goes off downhill to the left and leads directly to Vivanco.

This walled path, which is still cobbled in places, is known as ‘the Calvary Path’ since it was used to represent the ‘Via Crucis’ in Easter processions on the way up to the sanctuary.

The path comes out in the Urbanejo area of Vivanco and you should turn left, following the street down to the main road where there is a STOP sign.

Turn right and follow the pavement until a second STOP sign where a road, connecting the villages of Vivanco and Lezana, leads off to the right. Follow this road back to Lezana where it comes out beside the Old People’s Home.

From here go down a small asphalted road to a small crossroads with a pine tree, take the right-hand street, and return to Lezana village square.

Topographical map

Other points of interest

In Lezana: a late medieval tower, from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries built of worked stone and fortified by an enclosure that has cubic sentry boxes at the corners and small towers midway along its walls. The 20m tower is a solid construction with very few openings, and its defensive role is further strengthened by the presence of battlements and corner sentry boxes. Examples of traditional architecture, mansions with coats of arms. Las Estorcas mill, from the late nineteenth century.

In Vivanco: Late medieval tower (fourteenth-fifteenth centuries) with renovations and additions from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Examples of late medieval traditional architecture. Cubic houses, some with coats-of-arms, from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Abbot’s palace from the seventeenth-eighteenth century. Church with remains of the original primitive Romanic church and a Romanic sarcophagus lid from the twelfth century, belonging to the abbott/abbey of Vivanco.

Special Events

OFICINA DE TURISMO VALLE DE MENA

• C/ Eladio Bustamente, s/n.
  09580 Villasana de Mena
• Tlf y fax:
  947 141 341

email:turismomena@valledemena.es