Page 411 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

Ponferrada Castillo Templario’s imposing entrance
Templario (adult/concession Renaissance Basílica
g Ponferrada €4/2, Wed free; h10am-2pm de Nuestra Señora de
Ponferrada is not the & 4.30-8.30pm Tue-Sat, 10am- la Encina (%987 41 19 78;
2pm Sun) rise high over
h9am-2pm & 4.30-8.30pm),
region’s most enticing
town, but its castle and Río Sil, and the square, up the hill past the
remnants of the old town crenelated towers ooze tourist office, is the most
centre (around the stone romance and history. The impressive, especially
clock tower) make it castle has a lonely and its 17th-century painted
impregnable air, and is
wood altarpiece from
worth a brief stop. Built
by the Knights Templar a striking landmark in the school of Gregorio
in the 13th century, the Ponferrada’s otherwise Fernández.
walls of the fortress- bleak urban landscape. The Drive » Take the NVI
monastery Castillo Among Ponferrada’s from Ponferrada to Villafranca
churches, the Gothic- del Bierzo (23km, 25 minutes),
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