Fromista Canals? What was their purpose??

[Saint Mike II]

Hola, I have walked and cycled the Camino Frances and have marveled at the canal structures as you enter the town of Fromista. Can someone enlighten me? (Please) Why were they built and by whom. First correct answer gets my thanks (and maybe a coffee at some point). The reason I ask is that today's "forum media" shows those massive rock/stone formations. Cheers

 

[Canuck]

Can someone enlighten me?

Hola!
There you go:

Canal de Castilla - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Enjoy.

 

[RJM]

Moving grain, now irrigation and also recreation as I read somewhere they have a triathlon that uses the canal for the swim leg.

 

[Ian L]

If you keep following it from Fromista the one leg will take you to Palencia and then ends in Valladolid. It looks like an interesting walk!

 

[Roland49]

nowadays: fishing - frog picking - recreation and:
pilgrimage on water

BC
Roland

 

[Jeff Crawley]

nowadays: fishing - frog picking - recreation and:
pilgrimage on water

BC
Roland

I'd love to be working the desk in SdC and, on asking "And did you walk the whole way?" to be told "No, kayak, . . . "

 

[naplesdon]

If you keep following it from Fromista the one leg will take you to Palencia and then ends in Valladolid. It looks like an interesting walk!

It is interesting if you walk north but in going south you run out of places to stay in a short time. My own experience was there are areas where there is stagnant water and the mosquitoes are ferocious. It also has a branch that comes from Medina de Rioseca that operates a canal tour boat from time to time.

 

[jungleboy]

There is also a great section walking along the Canal de Castilla from Medina de Rioseco on the Camino de Madrid. I really enjoyed it last year, and blue sky always helps!

 

[nathanael]

Hola!
There you go:

Canal de Castilla - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Enjoy.

very nice I always enjoy this part of the Camino

 

[Rebekah Scott]

There is a waymarked path of 11 etapas from Palencia north to Liebana (Potes), where you can connect to the Camino Vadiniense onward to Santiago. It's called the Camino Lebaniego Castellano, it follows along the Canal de Castilla (via Fromista) all the way to its end at Alar del Rey, and continues up and over the mountains with stops at some fabulous Romanesque sites.

 

[Canuck]

There is a waymarked path of 11 etapas from Palencia north to Liebana (Potes

For those interested, this is the guide I used when I walked from Palencia to Potes four or five years ago.

https://www.diputaciondepalencia.es/system/files/publicacion-pdf/20170420/guia_camino_lebaniego.pdf

A very quiet and enjoyable journey.

 

[Deleted member 43985]

Mike - Believe the structure at the Fromista end you're referring to are the locks, similar to the Panama canal, used to bring vessels up and down in steps due to significant land height differences.

 

[Saint Mike II]

Hola @Canuck thanks for the excellent reply. Thanks also to others who offered advice info. As I always say - just ask and a fellow pilgrim will reply. Cheers

 

[naplesdon]

For those interested, this is the guide I used when I walked from Palencia to Potes four or five years ago.

https://www.diputaciondepalencia.es/system/files/publicacion-pdf/20170420/guia_camino_lebaniego.pdf

A very quiet and enjoyable journey.

Here we are in Amayuelas de Abajo

 

[mai]

I was fascinated by Canal de Castilla as well when I walked from Boadilla del Camino to Fromista last year!

From the map (https://palenciaromanica.blogspot.com) of the whole canal which was located mainly in Provincia de Palencia, we could see the magnitude of the engineering project constructed between 1753-1849.

 

[Kanga]

For those interested, this is the guide I used when I walked from Palencia to Potes four or five years ago.

https://www.diputaciondepalencia.es/system/files/publicacion-pdf/20170420/guia_camino_lebaniego.pdf

A very quiet and enjoyable journey.

What a marvellous resource. This looks like a walk I'd enjoy.

 

[Rozenn]

What a marvellous resource. This looks like a walk I'd enjoy.

The canal was planned by the Marques de la Ensenada during Fernando VI's reign.[1] Its purpose was to boost trade by allowing Tierra de Campos' wheat grain production to be transported from Castile to the northern harbour of Santander and to other markets from there; vice versa, the canal was also meant to facilitate the inflow of products from the Spanish colonies into Castile.[1]

The Spanish War of Independence, budgetary constraints and the difficult passage of the Cantabrian Mountainshampered and eventually reduced the initial plan of a 400 km so the canal never reached the Bay of Biscay as initially planned.[1] Overall, its construction took almost 100 years (from 1753 to 1849) and was eventually halted when railroads were built in northern Spain in the nineteenth century, superseding the project.[1]

The canal was most used during the 1850-1870 period, when up to 400 barges plied the canal towed by beasts of burden.[1] Later on, the canal evolved into the spine of a huge irrigation system due to its relative inefficiency vs. railfreight as a means of transport. The locks on the canal were decommissioned in the twentieth century.

 

[Rozenn]

And next time i will hop in the shuttle little boat from Boadilla to Fromista , it didn’t work mid april
2019 when I was passing by!!

 

[Marcus-UK]

I'd love to be working the desk in SdC and, on asking "And did you walk the whole way?" to be told "No, kayak, . . . "

Remember the Irish group who rowed all the way from Ireland

 

[jungleboy]

I listed the canal as one of my six reasons not to skip the Meseta. I even managed to sneak in a reference to @biarritzdon and his admirable attempt to make a camino along the canal!