Cruz de Ferro
The Cruz de Ferro (span .: Cruz de Hierro dt .: iron cross) is a small iron cross, which, mounted on a tree trunk, in the Montes de León the with 1500 msnm highest point of the Jakob path Camino Frances labeled at the Monte Irago. Only the Somport Pass on the Aragonese route is higher.
The cross stands in a heap of stones, which the pilgrims keep enlarging. The original cross has been in the Museo de los Caminos in Astorga since 1976. In addition to a small modern chapel from 1982, there are some covered resting places for pilgrims. Until the place was Christianized by a hermit who set up the forerunner of the above-mentioned cross, the Roman god of the way Mercury was perhaps worshiped at this point by placing a stone. But since the Celts also used crossroads and other outstanding natural places as places of worship, this will not have been the first cult at this place either.
According to Tomás, the host of the Manjarín pilgrims' hostel , the pile of stones is said to have been piled up on the road in the 1950s to make the place easier for bus tourists to reach. The original pile from Roman times is said to be 300 meters away from the road. In the 1990s, the Cruz de Ferro was the victim of vandalism when strangers cut the tree trunk of the cross with a chainsaw.
The originally non-Christian custom of placing a stone on the Cruz de Ferro is now easily integrated into religiously motivated pilgrimages , as the stone brought from home is viewed as a symbol of the " sins " left behind on the way or of the purification that has already been experienced. Many pilgrims also use the Cruz de Ferro to attach personal items, letters or even votive offerings to the tree trunk of the cross .
The prayer of Cruz de Ferro reads: “Lord, may this stone, symbol of my endeavors on my pilgrimage, which I will lay at the foot of the cross of the Savior, which one day, when the deeds of my life will be judged, the scales in favor of my good deeds reduce. May it be so. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Cordula Rabe: Spanish Way of St. James from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela and on to Finisterre and Muxía. (= Rother hiking guide). Bergverlag Rother, ISBN 978-3-7633-4330-0 , p. 149.
Web links
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Coordinates: 42 ° 29 ′ 20.4 " N , 6 ° 21 ′ 42" W.