Boadilla del Camino: a Gothic column of justice on the Way of Saint James

Pilgrims walking the French Way across the plains of Palencia arrive, between Itero de la Vega and Fromista, at the small village of Boadilla del Camino, whose name itself speaks of the Camino de Santiago. Behind its parish church rises the monument that has made the village famous: the finest Gothic rollo in Spain.

The rollo of Boadilla

This jurisdictional column, seven and a half metres tall, was raised in the 15th century after King Henry IV freed the village from the lords of Melgar and Castrojeriz, a privilege confirmed by the Catholic Monarchs in 1482. Richly carved with scallop shells, gargoyles, angels and foliage, it proclaimed the village's right to administer its own justice, and it has been protected as a national monument since 1960.

Church, canal and dovecotes

Beside it stands the church of Santa Maria de la Asuncion, a 16th-century building with a splendid Renaissance altarpiece of 1548 and a 13th-century baptismal font from its Romanesque predecessor. Just outside the village flows the Canal de Castilla, the great 18th-century waterway, and a tourist boat links Boadilla with the famous staircase of locks at Fromista. Crumbling mud-brick dovecotes dot the surrounding Tierra de Campos.

Getting there

Boadilla del Camino is about thirty-seven kilometres north-east of Palencia, a short walk from Fromista on the French Way.