Complete Guide to Valley of Mena Trail

The Way of the Mena Valley is a historical connection route, a link that unites two worlds: the maritime and commercial Cantabrian world, represented by the port of Bilbao, and the continental and peregrine Castile, whose heart was the French Way as it passed through Burgos. Its history is not that of a major principal route, but rather that of a logical and well-traveled corridor that served travelers, including pilgrims, who sought the most direct way between these two important nodes.

The founding of Bilbao in 1300 by Don Diego López de Haro marked a turning point for northern peninsula communications. The town quickly became a prosperous commercial port, attracting ships and merchants from Flanders, England, and other points in Northern Europe. With the merchants came also travelers and pilgrims who, once on land, wanted to continue their journey towards Santiago de Compostela. For them, the option was not necessarily to follow the coastal line, but to find an efficient route that would lead them into the interior to connect with the French Way, the great medieval pilgrimage route.

The Mena Valley, a comarca in northern Burgos province, which by its geography and climate seems like a piece of green Cantabria embedded in Castile, offered this natural corridor. From Bilbao, the road went south, passing through the strategic village of Balmaseda —a crossroads where it converged with the Forgotten Way— and entered the valley. This area was of great importance in the Middle Ages, as attested by its extraordinary patrimony: a notable concentration of Romanesque churches and hermitages, such as Santa María de Siones or San Lorenzo de Vallejo, and numerous fortified houses, which speak of a prosperous and well-defended territory.

Although there are no medieval chronicles that describe it as a "Jacobian route" with its own name, its use by pilgrims is inferred from the geographical logic and the infrastructure of the time. Commercial roads were the safest and best-maintained routes, and they were used by all types of travelers. The presence of this rich Romanesque patrimony and news about ancient hospitals in the area suggests constant transit of people who needed spiritual and physical assistance, a profile that fits perfectly the pilgrim.

One of the greatest riches of this route is the spectacular transition of landscapes it offers. The pilgrim starts from the green and humid environment of Vizcaya, immerses himself in the singularity of the Mena Valley, and finally emerges into the vast and austere plains of the Meseta castellana to face the final stretch towards Burgos. This contrast of landscapes is a reflection of its own historical function as a bridge between two geographical and cultural realities.