Sahagún

The Santuario de la Virgen Peregrina was founded as a Franciscan convent around 1257 and preserves particularly fine Mudéjar plasterwork. Pilgrims can collect the Carta Peregrina here, a certificate marking their passage beyond the geographical halfway point of the Camino Francés.

The Arco de San Benito was built in 1662 to replace the ruined Romanesque southern portal of the great abbey church. Its statues represent the martyrs Facundus and Primitivus and Kings Alfonso III and Alfonso VI, important patrons of the monastery. Today it is one of the most prominent surviving fragments of the abbey that once dominated medieval Sahagún.

Beside the 13^th-century Ermita de la Virgen del Puente, a modern monument marks the geographical halfway point of the Camino Francés between Roncesvalles and Santiago. The two figures represent King Alfonso VI and Bernard of Sédirac, the Cluniac abbot who helped make medieval Sahagún an important religious centre. The hermitage itself once served as a pilgrim hospital and leper house.

The Iglesia de San Tirso was begun in the 12^th century and is one of the earliest examples of Sahagún's distinctive Romanesque-Mudéjar architecture. Its apse shows the transition clearly: construction began in dressed stone before switching to brick, which became characteristic of churches in the town. Inside, models reconstruct several lost monuments of medieval Sahagún, including the great Monasterio de San Benito.

The Iglesia de San Lorenzo was built entirely in brick in the first half of the 13^th century, developing the Romanesque-Mudéjar style established at the Iglesia de San Tirso. Its most distinctive feature is the four-storey brick tower rising above the central apse. The two bronze penitents outside represent local Holy Week traditions, carrying a drum and horn.