What makes a pilgrim feel welcome after a long day of walking? In Fontei, a neighborhood of A Rúa in Galicia's Valdeorras region, Asunción Arias has spent years answering that question through personal attention and volunteer service. As president of the local Friends of the Camino association, she represents a form of hospitality that remains central to the Camino de Invierno.
Arias has worked as a volunteer on the Winter Way since 2011, according to an interview published on 4 November by Valdeorras de Cerca. Her relationship with the route is also deeply personal: she recalled her mother's wish that anyone arriving at their door as a pilgrim should be received with kindness.
The story is about more than one generous resident. It shows how a route grows through local relationships, patient work and the willingness to offer useful information to someone far from home.
Asunción Arias and hospitality on the Camino de Invierno
Asunción Arias leads the Association of Friends of the Camino de Santiago through Valdeorras. Her commitment spans the years when the route was still relatively unfamiliar to many pilgrims and the period in which it began gaining wider.
In his recent interview, Arias reflected on the meeting point between spiritual experience and everyday life. For her, living alongside a pilgrimage route means encountering people from different places, listening to their needs and sharing a small part of their journey.
That perspective matters on a Camino where contact with residents can be as memorable as the scenery. A welcome may involve directions, practical advice or simply an attentive conversation. It should never be confused with a promise of accommodation at a private home: individual help and the services available to walkers are different things.
Recent local reporting also recalls the role of the late Ramón Ragar in encouraging the association's work and supporting the idea of Fontei as a place where pilgrims could be welcomed and informed.
Fontei's restored chapel becomes a point of information
A concrete expression of this work is the pilgrim information point established in the former chapel of San Andrés, also described locally as the Capela do Santo, in Fontei. The restored building opened as an information facility in January 2026 and provides a home for the association's activities.
According to reports from the opening, the building was made available by its owners and adapted with support from the Galician regional authorities. The restoration preserved elements of the original structure while giving it a new community purpose.
For walkers, the significance is practical. Identifiable information points can help them understand the route, find services and ask questions that a map cannot answer. For the village, reusing a historic building also gives a familiar place a new role in local life.
The initiative complements A Rúa's pilgrim hostel rather than replacing it. The distinction is important for anyone planning an overnight stay: an information office and an accommodation facility perform different functions.
Valdeorras landscape near the wider Camino de Invierno corridor. Photo: Estevoaei / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source and license.
A route that has changed in a decade
In 2026, the Camino de Invierno marked ten years since its official recognition as a Jacobean route in Galicia's cultural heritage legislation. In an August interview with Somos Comarca, Arias looked back on an earlier period when volunteers installed the first arrows and international pilgrims helped keep the route active.
The Camino de Invierno leaves the Camino Francés at Ponferrada and crosses the landscapes of eastern and inland Galicia on its way towards Santiago. Valdeorras forms part of this journey, bringing the pilgrim into contact with towns, vineyards and the Sil valley.
Its development has required more than recognition on paper. Signposting, places to sleep, public information and volunteer networks all influence whether walkers can travel with confidence. A Rúa's hospitality initiatives should be understood within this wider effort.
RTV Camino de Santiago has previously covered the growth of the Winter Road. Readers interested in the broader network of routes can also explore the credentials and certificates associated with pilgrimage.
What pilgrims can learn from Fontei
Those planning to walk through A Rúa should check current information about accommodation, opening hours and the next stages before setting out. A story about hospitality is an invitation to appreciate the community, not a substitute for confirming practical services.
Above all, Asunción Arias's experience makes visible the people behind the arrows. A route is sustained by walkers, but also by residents who open doors, associations that organize, and volunteers who keep returning to help.
In Fontei, the Camino de Invierno is not only a line across a map. It is a relationship between those who arrive and those who choose to welcome them.
Sources: Merca2; Close Valdeorras; We are Region; The Voice of Galicia.
