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Wise Pilgrim APPMombuey is the capital of the Comarca de la Carballeda, though 'capital' is a generous word for a town this size. What it does have is one genuinely remarkable thing: the Templar tower attached to the Iglesia de la Asuncion. The church itself is unremarkable -- late-18th-century rebuild of a 13th-century original -- but the tower is something else entirely. Built by the Knights Templar in the second half of the 13th century as a military watchtower, it's a solid, square, no-nonsense piece of medieval engineering that stands out against the surrounding rooflines. It's the kind of tower that was built to see trouble coming from a long way off.
The town has a private albergue, a municipal albergue, bars, a small supermarket, and a pharmacy. It's the last place with proper services before a long stretch through depopulating villages where you'll be lucky to find an open bar.
The Knights Templar maintained a presence in Mombuey during the 13th century, and the tower attached to the Iglesia de la Asuncion was built as a military watchtower during this period. The Carballeda region was a strategic corridor between the Castilian meseta and the mountains of Galicia, and the Templars were tasked with protecting pilgrims and travellers along the route. The tower survives as one of the few tangible remnants of the Templar presence on the Camino Sanabres.
As the camino gets deeper into the Zamora mountains, the villages get closer together but smaller. Few offer any services. The camino follows near the N-525 for a short distance before turning south to cross the motorway and the AVE line. After crossing, it passes through the small rural hamlets of Valdemerilla (4.6 km), Cernadilla (3.5 km), San Salvador de Palazuelo (1.8 km), and Entrepenas (3.4 km). It then turns back north to cross over the AVE, the motorway, and the N-525 into Asturianos.
