How to visit and what to see in Ojo Guareña and Ermita San Bernabé (Burgos)

In the Burgos province There are many natural places truly amazing that deserve a trip to see them.

And one of the most interesting is, without a doubt, Guareña Eye, place where the Hermitage of San Barnabas.

Burgos It is a fascinating province, especially for nature lovers.

It is a place of Spain full of interesting corners, whose peculiar orography offers us authentic gems.

The north of the province is mountainous and humans have had to adapt to life there over the centuries.

And perhaps the best example of the union of nature and man occurs in the complex of Guareña Eye, a karst complex of the most important in the world due to its size.

What the Cuevas Ojo Guareña karst complex is like in Burgos

El Ojo Guareña karst complex It is an absolute must see in the Burgos province, since it is the most extensive of Spain and one of the most important in Europe.

But if that were not enough, it is one of the 10 largest in the world, with 110 kilometers long of its galleries explored to date, spread over six different floors.

It is not only important for the size of its gallery network, but for everything that has been found inside during its 70 years of exploration.

In Ojo Guarena there are more than 36 endemic species, of which 34 are new to science, and more than 80 archaeological sites.

All this makes Guareña Eye It is a very special place worldwide and a doubly protected space, A Cultural y Natural Monument since 1996.

The Quaternary glaciations caused the seepage that descended through the mountains to excavate and sculpt the limestone rock until leaving us with the complex that we can see today.

How to visit the Ojo Guareña Natural Monument in Burgos

When visit the Ojo Guareña complex and learn more about its history, you should know that when talking about visit the Cave and Hermitage of San Bernabé, we are referring to the access to the cave next to the hermitage.

But it must be taken into account that the visit to the cave through this access, it is a small approximation to the Ojo Guarena complex.

In that area you can only see two small galleries that allow you to understand the concept, and the visit focuses on the hermitage.

For visit the cave in a broader and more interesting way with its curiosities, it is necessary to do it through the Palomera Cave.

What to see when visiting the Ojo Guareña Caves

La visit to the Cave and Hermitage of San Bernabé It focuses on the use that humans have historically made of the most accessible 400 meters of cave.

And the history of human beings in this environment goes back far in time.

The oldest human remains found inside is 46.000 years old, a baby tooth from a neanderthal.

But then the occupation of the cave continued, especially in the paleolithic and in the prehistory recent with examples of all kinds, with burials, ceramics and rock art.

From the Roman age They no longer go so deep and focus more on the rooms close to the entrances to the cave.

You have to think that Guareña Eye It has an extension of more than 100 kilometers, so if the man went too far into its interior and lost the light of the torches, it was impossible to get out of there.

This fact has given rise to various stories and legends that continue to be told today when you visit the cave.

On the tour you can see the uses that have been given to the cave with some real silos, which are unique in the peninsula, which were used to store grain.

Large silos that could exceed 2 meters high, which meant that people could be placed inside to shape them.

It is believed that a bonfire could be lit inside to cook the clay walls of the silo and thus waterproof the interior, in such a way that they could store the grain without fear of conservation failures.

These silos dated to the 8th century, in the Visigoth era, belong to a historical moment from which there are hardly any archaeological remains, especially in the north of the Iberian Peninsula.

What to see at the San Bernabé de Ojo Guareña Hermitage

But if there is a spectacular element in this Cave and Hermitage of San Bernabé complex, it is without a doubt the hermitage.

We are talking about a hermitage that has a very characteristic element, and that is that it is built inside the cave.

Between the 7th and 8th centuries, hermit monks They decide to retire in one of the entrances to the historic cave, creating this space of worship.

La Hermitage of San Barnabas It has enormous curiosity in its own name and that can be seen in various details of its interior.

The original name of the hermitage is Hermitage of San Tirso, but its festival is in January and this posed a problem for the local population, since the pilgrimage up to this point in full Cantabrian mountain range It was complicated by the cold winter temperatures.

However, the festival of Saint Barnabas It is in June, and this made it much easier to carry out the pilgrimage that has been celebrated since at least the 18th century.

But this curious, relatively recent change in the name does not change its interior.

The hermitage is a true gem, a small cave full of Fresh with several scenes in the central vault.

On the one hand, in the upper part there are scenes with the baptism and martyrdoms that they subject to Saint Tirso throughout his life, and on the other, in the lower part, the miracles and healings of the saints.

As the entire vault is full of frescoes, the ideal is to make a guided tour of the cave, the best way to understand these spectacular scenes and scenery painted on the rock.

How to visit and what to see in Cueva Palomera in Ojo Guareña

La Palomera Cave and Ramp It is the most common access for tourism to the Ojo Guareña karst complex.

Making this visit is how you truly understand the importance that this network of caves has in the world.

When visiting, you have two options, do the short or long route.

The shortest would be a route of one and a half kilometers, while the long one covers several more galleries, including the one called Cacique Room, the deepest and furthest from the entrance.

During the tour of the Palomera Cave Several rooms are visited, each one with an attraction, either for its Rocky formations, archaeological remains linked to centuries-old legends, or their minerals y golden colored bacteria, like those of the Edelweiss Room.

A journey through the geological history of the area with an impressive ending, the Sima Ailments.

It is a set of two chasms, one of 24 meters and the other of 54 meters, with a spectacular waterfall which can be seen when there is rain, and where the light enters at 12 in the morning in summer, creating an impressive image.

This enormous chasm has a peculiarity and that is that for many years it was used to throw the bodies of the deceased as a grave.

In short, a visit to a place that you will never forget.