Vía de la Plata
A north-south pilgrim road from Seville across Extremadura and Castile; it is the Spanish Camino that follows the old Roman road Via de la Plata.
At a glance
- Starts in
- Seville Cathedral
- Ends in
- Astorga
- Length
- 706 km
- On foot
- ≈ 28–35 days
- Countries
- Spain
About the trail
The Vía de la Plata follows the Roman road that linked Mérida and Astorga. Pilgrims from Andalusia walk it for about a month to Astorga, where it meets the Camino Francés, or continue through Galicia on the Sanabrés branch.
On the way it passes the Roman theatre and bridge at Mérida, the walled old town of Cáceres and the university city of Salamanca, with long, empty stretches of oak pasture between them. Villages are further apart than on the northern routes, and summer in Extremadura is very hot, so most pilgrims walk in spring or autumn.
Depending on where you start, it is 800 to 900 km, usually walked in about 32 stages.
Trails it meets
Length measured on the OpenStreetMap line; no official figure checked yet.
No source gives the days on foot, so they are worked out from the length at 20–25 km a day.