Ok. So the church was destroyed during the War of Convention and rebuilt between 1799 and 1802. On the info board you will read that “ between 9, 13 and 21 September 1803, Valcarlos applied for a loan of 26,407 reales and 13 maravedies at the annual interest rate of 13,12 percent. All Valcarlos dwellers guaranteed the loan with their properties and their lives, about the way of paying the cost of stonemasonry and carpentry works for the Church and parish house”.
I was deeply moved by the story for two different reasons. Firstly, that whole town guaranteed the loan for the church not only with their possessions but also with their lives. The second reason is more personal. This year to do the Camino I had to take a loan to buy a new bike (my old one after doing 5 Caminos has finally retired) and new GPS (last moment, my friend’s GPS happened to be not so reliable). It was important for me to do it in the spring because I wanted to publish my guide for cyclists, that I finished three years ago, but in the end, I didn’t publish it. The route does change, so I had to cycle it again. I climbed to Valcarlos, full of doubts and when I read this story I realized that perhaps I am not so crazy after all. They cleared the loan after 30 years. I will pay back my next year.
So you see, thanks to the story from the 19th century I started to climb to Ibaneta in a much better frame of mind.