Vía de la Plata: Stage 16

You will start this stage in Aldeanueva del Camino, in the square where the town hall is located and the you will walk towards the national road. You will have to continue straight forward and then you will get to a roundabout, then you will have to continue and then turn left once you see a huge a signal that indicates the way to Hervás. This village is not in the original route so you will have to walk 4 kilometres to get there, but we strongly recommend visit it due to its beauty. There are remarkable buildings at the bottom side of the river, where some Jewish families installed from the 15th Century. Here you will also see the Iglesia de Santa María church.

Then you will return to the original route and you will walk next to the Embalse de Baños reservoir and then you will get to Baños de Montemayor, after eight kilometres walking through the national road. Once you get there you can visit its establishments and services and also its monuments. Then you will walk to a mountain pass called Béjar. Now you will change the asphalted road for and old Roman road, you will continue through it until get to the national road N-630 a little bit after. You will have to cross it and then continue through a path to the left to finally get to Castile and León. Then you will get to a neighbourhood called Estación. Then you will get to a path to the left that will get you to a bridge and then to a recreational area. Then you will have to get to the Cuerpo de Hombre river and you will have to cross it to walk through a path full of oak trees. A few meters away we must take a diversion to the right, jumping over a short wooden fence in order to see one of the best kept milestones of all the Saint James Way. You will have to continue through some paths until get to Béjar that is lovely small village where you will find some monuments. In this small village of about on hundred inhabitants, you will have the chance to see the Asuncion church in the main square or the Santisimo Cristo de la Misericordia shrine, where you can rest for a while after the hard previous journeys.

Bear in mind

In spite of being a small village, La Calzada de Béjar has a private hostel and some holiday cottages. The Calzada de Béjar is a village of less than one hundred inhabitants. However, it has a private hostel and several rural houses to stay. This stage does not pose any additional difficulties for cyclists or people with reduced mobility.