Santa Colomba de Somoza has less than 500 inhabitants, a beautiful rural hotel and a pop museum. As a letter of introduction, it is not bad at all for this small and beautiful town in the León region of La Maragatería, a few kilometers from Astorga. But what is a museum like this doing in a place like this? It’s a question that Alex Cooper has surely heard many times since he opened the doors of Fundación Club 45 last spring. A “pop cultural laboratory”—that’s how he defines it—that is the soundtrack to explore this region that tastes like cooked maragato and cured meat.
“I want it to give the feeling of entering a collector’s room, but with everything very well organized,” explains Alejandro Díez, real name of Alex Cooper, singer of the group Los Flechazos and later of Cooper. With free access and with a wonderful bar, garden and space for talks and concerts, this unique pop museum has set out to bring urban culture closer to rural areas. And in view of the good reception during its first half year of operation, with almost 5,000 visitors, it has achieved it.
And, as Cooper himself points out while we tour the different rooms dedicated to memorabilia pop from all over the world, this place has become a great plan for music fans and a different excuse to get to know this land. “La Maragatería is almost a secret place and I like that,” he confesses when talking about the choice of location, but without losing sight of the fact that León is one of the cultural and musical cradles of the 80s in Madrid.
The town bar is in a museum
“My theory is that music beat “It is popular music from León,” says the singer, who plans to move to this same town. Also remember that this is not a museum dedicated to Los Flechazos but to all pop music, although there are various references to their career and their groups.
In addition to the museum space divided into several floors—and without music, so that people can talk—part of the collection is not on display and functions as a library and research room; We are talking about the largest collection of music magazines from the 60s.
Even for those who are not passionate about the subject, the visit can be very interesting. After all, the museum bar also serves as the town’s bar, that sacred institution that keeps many places standing. “I want the ladies of the town to sit here and watch the moderns pass by,” says Cooper.
Those who come here out of curiosity or pop music will do well to extend their visit and spend the night at Casa Pepa, a small rural hotel located in a traditional 18th century Maragata house. Small windows, thick walls, sobriety towards the outside and interior splendor with a beautiful central patio define the typical architecture of this mansion, converted into a hotel in 2000 by Pepa Nieto and which she now runs with her daughter Laura Alonso.
Hospitality to make the visitor—or the pilgrims who walk the Camino de Santiago—feel at home. And also to discover the gastronomy and wines of León in the restaurant with the same name, where they rely on traditional recipes with lots of spoon dishes or proposals such as eggs a la maragata, but also modern nods and careful plating.
The maragato stew
You have to save room for the soup, which is served at the end. A piece of advice that is often repeated by those in the know before sitting down at the table to try a cocido maragato, the best-known dish in the region and which is served in most restaurants in the area. Where to eat it? In addition to what they prepare at Casa Pepa, in the nearby and beautiful town of Castrillo de los Polvazares, the Casa Juan Andrés restaurant is also worth a visit.
In Astorga, the capital of the region, the offer is very wide, but to name a couple of restaurants that are a safe bet, Casa Maragata I and Las Termas prepare an excellent stew.
The generosity in the portions here is taken for granted, so if you want to get to the soup, it is better to control yourself with the tray of meats (lacón, blood sausage, ear, legs, chicken…) that arrives first, after a bit of good chopped tomato sliced, or the excellent chickpeas that follow it accompanied by vegetables. Also with invitations to repeat if you need more meat or chickpeas.
Maragato is the only stew that is eaten upside down, it is remembered in the area, pointing out that there are various theories that explain this inverted order of the three traditional upside down. One of the most established is linked to the profession of muleteers – transporters – deeply rooted in the area and which, according to what is said, took travelers to eat the meat and vegetables that they had already prepared and at the end order a soup with which to enter. warm up before continuing on the path.
With a price of 28 euros per person—including the Bierzo wine—you just have to look around to realize that, although there is a menu with other proposals, the stew is the star dish of the Las Termas restaurant for both locals and visitors.
Santiago Juárez has been preparing it for two decades and, as he explains, the only trick is time and good ingredients. “To prepare a good Maragato stew you have to get up early,” he claims. The restaurant, by the way, is included in the Michelin Bib Gourmand list, which highlights those that offer a great relationship between quality and moderate prices.
Jerky and chocolate
Although it is true that, when it is well made, it does not have to be heavy or especially greasy, a walk is always a good idea after a cooked maragato. Astorga makes it very easy, and the route will necessarily pass by two of its great attractions: the imposing cathedral, an example of the mixture of several architectural styles, and, next door, the episcopal palace with the unmistakable signature of Gaudí.
The Chocolate Museum is also a recommended stop if the plan is a gastronomic route. A space that reviews the interesting chocolate history of this Leonese town where, once again, the importance of the Maragatos mule drivers in transporting goods from the Galician ports to Madrid turned it into an important commercial hub.
To this day, artisan chocolate continues to be one of the typical products of the area and a great edible souvenir to take home as a souvenir. In some of them, such as El Arriero Maragato, they have even dared to go a little further and combine it with what, without a doubt, is the other great product of the region to create chocolate bars with cured meat from León.
Present on the menu of all bars and restaurants and a common filling for croquettes in the area, cecina is actually not a sausage as is often believed, but rather salted, cured and smoked beef.
Made with the hind leg of a cow or in some cases an ox, the Cecina de León Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) is home to 11 companies that produce it in an artisanal way and following the standards of quality, weight and curing that, when it comes to Buying or eating a portion anywhere is always a guarantee that you are choosing good local products.
And, again, the muleteers, their routes and their diet explain the popularity of this product in the area. “Smoking was a way to preserve the meat during the days of transportation,” explains Conchi Nieto, from Cecinas Nieto. Located near Astorga, it is one of the main companies in the sector and the one with the greatest international recognition in countries where halal cured meat has become a kind of alternative to Iberian ham.
Although the visitor to the maragatería will not need a master’s degree in cured meats to enjoy this product, it is interesting to know that the minimum curing period is seven months and that after twelve it passes to the reserve category. The usual thing is to find it cut, it is also sold by pieces and that is where you can distinguish four different cuts: the top, the stifle, the back and the hip. Which is better? “There is no difference in flavor, it is a matter of taste or the type of cut you prefer,” explains Nieto.
And, returning to the sweets to complete the menu, a visit to the Maragatería cannot end without trying or packing some Astorga puff pastries – the syrup bath with honey gives them a special touch -, or the Astorga mantecadas that , with more than two centuries of history, has its own PGI (Protected Geographical Indication).
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