On Saturday we headed out of the campsite, turned right and up the never ending hill to the Monestary of Santo Toribio de Liebana. The monastery, in a remote location high in the mountains close to Potes is one of the five places in Roman Catholicism that has the privilege of issuing perpetual indulgences. The others being Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Caravaca de la Cruz.

The monastery was founded prior to the 6th century and venerates part of the Lignum Cross discovered in Jerusalem. The left arm of the cross is kept on a gilded silver reliquery and because of this claim to hold the largest surviving piece of the True Cross, the monastery was an important pilgrimage centre and one of the most important holy sites of Roman Catholicism in Europe.

The most important building is the gothic church. It’s perhaps less ostentatious than some of the larger cathedrals and is in keeping with the site of the monastery.

After spending time at the monastery, we continued our walk to the Mirador de San Miguel. From here the views across the valleys and mountains are exceptional.

Here is the circular route we took from Camping La Viorna to the Monastery, onwards to Mirador San Miguel and finally the route back to our site.