Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana and the Lignum Crucis

Santo Toribio is a Franciscan monastery on the slope that climbs from Potes towards Fuente Dé, and a short visit: a 13th-century church, a cloister and a Baroque chapel where the Lignum Crucis is kept, which the monastery presents as the largest surviving fragment of the cross of Christ. Here the monk Beatus wrote, in 776, his Commentary on the Apocalypse, and here the Camino Lebaniego ends. Entry costs nothing; what you have to work out is the chapel's opening hours.

The chapel opens two hours a day

The hours the monastery publishes in November 2026:

On Sunday the chapel does not open, so the relic is not seen. If you go in the afternoon on a weekday, arrive before 17:00. Monastery telephone: 942 730 550; email, [email protected].

The cypress wood in its silver reliquary

The Lignum Crucis is in the centre of the chapel, under a baldachin. According to the monastery, it came from Jerusalem to Astorga with Santo Toribio, bishop of that city, and in the 8th century it was brought to Liébana to keep it safe from the Muslim advance. The vertical beam measures 63 cm and the crosspiece 39, with a thickness of 3.8 cm, and it is held in a gilded silver reliquary in the shape of a cross, in Gothic style, made in a Valladolid workshop in 1679. A 1958 analysis identified the wood as cypress. The chapel was built in the 18th century, in Baroque style, with a donation from Francisco de Cossío.

The church and the Door of Forgiveness

The church is from the 13th century, a transition from Romanesque to Gothic and Cistercian in style. Look at the Door of Forgiveness, a Romanesque remnant of an earlier church: it is opened only in the Lebaniego Holy Years. Since 1512, by privilege of Pope Julius II, it is a Holy Year when 16 April, the feast of Santo Toribio, falls on a Sunday. By that rule, the next will be 2028.

The Benedictines who lived here for centuries left with the confiscation of 1834; the Franciscans arrived in 1961 and are the present community.

End of the Camino Lebaniego

From San Vicente de la Barquera the Camino Lebaniego is 72 km, and the last stretch is about 3 km uphill from Potes. On arrival they stamp your credential and give you the Lebaniega, the pilgrim's diploma, signed and stamped by the Franciscans. It can be linked with the Camino del Norte, along the coast, or with the Camino Francés.

Going up and extending the walk to the chapels

By car, from Potes, it is about 3 km along the CA-185, the Fuente Dé road, with a signposted turn-off to the monastery. On foot, the climb follows the Camino itself. If you have time left, the monastery suggests a short route round the surrounding hermitages: San Miguel, with a view over the valley; the Cueva Santa, a small building of pre-Romanesque origin; the ruins of Santa Catalina and the hermitage of San Pedro.