Hornillos del Camino (Burgos) (0)

Did you know that... Hornillos del Camino

It is located to the west of the province of Burgos and its municipal district is crossed by the Hormazuelas River, a tributary of the Arlanzón River on its right bank. In the 9th century Hornillos del Camino was part of a defensive line formed by fortress towers that from Tardajos passing through Rabé reached Castrojeriz. At that time it was known as Forniellos, small kilns dedicated to pottery.

A little more history

According to a 12th century writ Alfonso VII donates the villa to the Monastery of San Dionisio in Paris. Years later the Monastery of Santa María was founded in the vicinity of the village. It depended on the brotherhood of Nuestra Señora de Rocamador and had as its prior a monk from the French abbey of San Martín de Tulle. In 1471 he disassociated himself from this priory and became part of the properties of the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña. During the 11th to 13th centuries, Hornillos had a great commercial development. There were three hermitages in Hornillos del Camino, but only the Gothic hermitage of Santa María remains today. It is what remains of what was the church of the old monastery, the other two, that of San Lazaro and San Roque, are only memories. The hermitage of San Lázaro could have been the church of the hospital of the same name that served lepers and pilgrims. There was also another hospital for pilgrims run by the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit. In 1936, Visigothic sepulchres appeared, where a lot of ceramics and other metals of great value were found.

What to see in Hornillos del Camino?

Among its houses, located on both sides of the Royal Street, the Gothic parish church of San Román, built in the 16th century, stands out.

To discover

The medieval bridge over the river Hormazuela is worth mentioning. The chalice with the crossed keys, which in relief, is on the lintel of the façade of the building that was once the old hospital, is striking. In the square there is a curious fountain in whose upper part is sculpted a rooster. In addition, the different samples of architecture related to the Way of St James speak to us of the spirit of this village-Way.

Festivities

Hornillos del Camino celebrates its patron saint San Roque on November 18 and at the end of June, not long ago they began to celebrate, are the Fiestas del Gallo.​

Traditions

Tradition has it that the church of Santa Maria was granted, in the year 1360, the privilege of granting up to 40 days of indulgences to the pilgrims who were in the church on certain dates.

Curiosities

At the entrance to the village you can still see the remains of La Malatería de San Lázaro, which was a leprosarium founded by Alfonso VII in 1156 to give shelter to lepers and sick pilgrims.

The Legend

When the Napoleonic troops were defeated in the War of Independence, fleeing in retreat a group of them came to pass by Hornillos, they were hungry and taking advantage of the fact that the neighbors were in the church listening to Mass they made a tour through the corrals taking away all the roosters and hens. So that the people of the town did not notice, they killed the animals and hid them in the drums, then they gathered in the Plaza de la Fuente. When at the end of Mass the people of the village saw the lack of these animals, they went to the fountain to ask for explanations to the French who denied that they knew what had happened. Then a woman, faced with so much misfortune, fervently asks for the divine intersection and then the miracle occurred, before the incredulous looks of those present, one of the dead roosters began to sing from the inside of a drum, thus discovering the wrongdoing. Since then the rooster was the symbol of the town of Hornillos and the fountain was called the Fountain of the Rooster.