Rabanal del Camino

Rabanal del Camino is a municipality in the province of León, Castilla y León, situated at 1,150 metres in the Maragatería on the Camino Frances. The village is the last serviced settlement before the long mountain ridge crossing to the Cruz de Ferro and the descent into the Bierzo.

The priory of San Salvador del Palacio, reestablished in 1988 by Benedictine monks of the Confraternity of Saint James, holds daily Gregorian chant services attended by pilgrims, providing one of the most distinctive spiritual experiences available on the Camino Frances. The church of Santa María, with Romanesque origins, is the principal historic building in the village.

The stone houses of Rabanal have the heavy, closed quality of Maragata construction appropriate to the altitude and exposure. The surrounding terrain is the open moorland and scattered oak that characterises the high Maragatería.