A famous landmark on the camino, originally to help pilgrims find their way across the mountains. Nowadays each pilgrim may add a stone, brought from home, to the huge cairn below the cross. The Santiago chapel built from the stone of the ruined Church of San Roque in Manjarín, dates from Holy Year 1982.

Cruz de Ferro is Galician meaning cross of iron. You may hear Spanish speaking people refer to it by its Spanish name of Cruz de Herro, but most people refer to this by its local name, Cruz de Ferro.

The current cross is a replica and the original is stored in the bishop’s palace in Astorga. It is atop a 5-metre post. The history is not clear but there is a legend of both a Celtic monument and a Roman temple to Mercury (the god of travellers) at this point. Although this is not the highest point of the Irago mountains (that comes about 3km after Manjarín). The Christinization of this point is attributed to the hermit Guacelmo in the 11th century.

The current tradition is to bring a small stone from your home or from just after Astorga if you forgot to bring one with you. As you will be aware by now, it is a genuine sacrifice to carry any unnecessary weight and the stone is there to symbolize anything that is emotionally weighing on you. Leaving behind the stone symbolizes shedding whatever has weighed you down.

If you wish to say a prayer similar to the prayer used by Martin Sheen in the Way you may want to try this “Lord, may this stone, a symbol of our efforts on pilgrimage that I lay at the foot of the Cross of the Saviour, one day be the balance in favour of our good deeds when the deeds of our lives are judged. Let it be so. Amen”.