Ventas de Narón

Ventas de Narón is a small Lugo village with great historical weight on the Camino Francés, set in the Sierra de Ligonde. In the Middle Ages it was known as "Sala Regina" and was a strategic point of vital importance. Tradition places a bloody battle here in the year 820 between the Christian troops of King Alfonso II and the Muslim armies, marking the beginning of the Reconquista in these lands. Its present name comes from its role as a market place and inn ("ventas") for medieval pilgrims. Today it preserves a small hermitage dedicated to Mary Magdalene (possibly Templar in origin) and is a symbolic spot marking the passage into the comarca of A Ulloa, offering the walker a setting of peace and legend.