Calzadilla de los Hermanillos

Everything is going well at the alburgue.  Rain is falling in the plain in Spain and it's likely to continue for a week.  Coming from New Mexico, it's hard to imagine a week of steady rain.  It's time to go on an extended tour of the village.  This is a don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it kind of place but it also has been a stop on the Camino de Santiago for hundreds of years so it has some history.

Spain has some recently discovered human living sites that are 900,000 years old. Since then, many Eastern European and Germanic people have arrived.  In the third century, the Romans were very actively mining and building roads in northern Spain.  This little park in Calzadilla has a few Roman artifacts and some good interpretive signs.

This is a section of Roman road built in the 3rd century.  It's called the Via Trajana after Emporer Trajan.  The sign tells me that the construction method was very sophisticated.  The route was excavated and progressively smaller stones were layered until the road was above grade for drainage.  The top layer was flagstones and that must made for a really rough ride in a steel-wheeled chariot.  The flagstones are missing and probably have been scavanged for other building projects.

Agriculture in Spain in the 18th and 19th centuries depended on draft animals.  This machine was built to lift oxen, horses, mules and donkeys to make hoof care and shoeing easier.  It's a wooden frame with leather straps to go under the animals belly. The modern roof over this machine is for protection from weather.