Castile and Leon Voyage Tips and guide

Contents

41°25′12″N 4°27′0″W

Map of Castile and Leon

• 42.598889-5.5669441 León has a fine Gothic cathedral and a wealth of cultural, historical and architectural heritage.
• 42.46-6.062 Astorga is a cathedral city on the Santiago pilgrimage route.
• 42.615-6.423 Bembibre is an agricultural town to the west.
• 42.55-6.5834 Ponferrada is near the UNESCO landscape of Las Médulas.
• 42.340833-3.6997225 Burgos has a Gothic cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• 42.016667-4.5333336 Palencia is mostly modern but old buildings cluster round its flamboyant cathedral.
• 41.651981-4.7285617 Valladolid is mostly modern but with many interesting old buildings.
• 41.503333-5.7555568 Zamora is studded with Romanesque architecture.
• 40.965-5.6641679 Salamanca has a wonderful old town centre, and many buildings are UNESCO world heritage sites.
• 40.599167-6.52888910 Ciudad Rodrigo is a frontier town much bashed by Wellington.
• 40.384722-5.76194411 Béjar has a museum about its textile industry.
• 40.654347-4.69622212 Ávila, spectacularly ringed by ancient walls, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• 40.948056-4.11833313 Segovia is symbolised by its Roman aqueduct and crag-top citadel, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• 41.766667-2.46666714 Soria has a clutch of Romanesque churches.

• 40.7895-4.00251 Puerto de Navacerrada and nearby Valdesqui are two skiing areas on the boundary with Madrid.
• 41.999161-2.8472522 Laguna Negra in the Sierra Urbion is a glacial lake ringed by granite walls. Hiking trails take in two similar lakes and the source of the River Douro.

"Lors feras chastiaus en Espaigne / E avras joie de neient / Tant con tu iras foleiant"

"Thou shalt make castles than in Spaine, / And dreame of joy / all but in vaine"

"Roman de la Rose" was written in the 13th century, and translated into English by Chaucer among others. It was a best-seller, as in medieval times it was the closest they got to romantic fiction. To this day, to "build castles in Spain" is the French equivalent of "build castles in the air", to engage in idle fantasy. It was mostly for the ease of a rhyme that the story picked Spain (where the rain falls mainly on the plain) but there were real knights and even more armchair warriors who dreamed of setting themselves up here, especially in the little kingdom named for its castles.

Meseta Central is a extensive plateau at around 700-1000 m altitude, boxed in by mountain ranges that force the drainage west to the Atlantic, swelling into the river Duero / Duoro. It's reasonably fertile, so it was mostly for agricultural produce that the Romans moved in from 218 BC, then they heard about the gold and other valuable metals. The gold mines of Médulas funded Rome the way the Americas later funded the Spanish Empire at its zenith. The aqueduct at Segovia is the Romans' best-known work here, and they built walls around several cities, maintained in later ages.

They marched away to be replaced by the Visigoths, but from around 710 AD the Moors captured all but the northern fringes of Spain. For over 200 years this region was a borderland, never beautified like the cities of Andalusia, and it became depopulated. The Christian pushback began in 722 and by 910 the Kingdom of León was established, covering the northwest quarter of Spain. Its eastern portion Castile split off in the 11th century but reunited in the 13th; this became a leading force in the Reconquista, so places as far away as Seville and the Canaries became part of it, and the union with Aragon in 1469 effectively created a single Spain. The present autonomous community of Castilla y León is a smaller entity but still the largest subnational political unit in the European Union; it's larger than Belgium.

The Reconquista was not just territorial but cultural: the area was repopulated from further north, and churches and secular noble buildings sprang up everywhere. There was royal patronage as the court and capital moved about, until those settled in Madrid and Spain fell on hard times. Later industry and development was limited so this has left a wealth of old cities and sights such as cathedrals, many recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

• Tourist information

Castile and León has long, cold winters, with average temperatures between 3 and 6 °C in January, and short, hot summers (average 19 to 22 °C), but with the three or four months of summer aridity characteristic of the Mediterranean climate. Rainfall, with an average of 450–500 mm per year, is scarce, accentuating in the lower lands.

Spanish is the main language. Everyone in Castile and Leon speaks Spanish, but in the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca, Leonese is also spoken by a small minority.

Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD ^IATA) is usually the best airport for reaching this region, for its wide range of flights and good onward transport. Several buses for Castile and Leon start from this airport.

Castile-León itself has only small airports, at Valladolid (VLL ^IATA), León (LEN ^IATA), Salamanca (SLM  ^IATA) and Burgos (RGS ^IATA). Typically these link to Spanish holiday islands such as Mallorca or the Canaries. Some have flights from Barcelona (with connections across Europe), but not from Madrid which is too close to fly.

High-speed trains fan out from Madrid Chamartín to all the main cities, continuing to Ourense, Vigo and Portugal. Slower trains start from Madrid Principio Pio, eg to Ávila. One daily train is direct from Barcelona via Zaragoza to Burgos and Valladolid.

From France the shortest route is via Hendaye and Irun. From there trains run to Burgos, Palencia, Valladolid or León.

Alsa is the main inter-city bus line, plying from Madrid Estación Sur ("south station") and stopping at Moncloa interchange in the northwest suburbs. Some buses start from Madrid Airport.

Trains and buses link the main towns. Their stations are mostly within a 30 min walk of the sights of interest, but one exception is Segovia: the high speed frequent train stops at Guiomar 5 km south, while the central old station only has a couple of slow trains a day.

You need your own wheels for outlying sights such as the mining landscape of Las Médulas.

See below for the long-distance pilgrimage trails to Santiago.

• The gothic cathedral of Burgos.
• Segovia is best known for its aqueduct and old town; La Granja is a palace 11 km out.
• Ávila within its city walls.
• Salamanca old town.
• Las Médulas, where the Romans mined gold.
• Siega Verde 20 km northwest of Ciudad Rodrigo has rock carving over 10,000 years old.
• Small picturesque villages: too many to mention, but La Alberca in the hills south of Salamanca is a good example.

• Camino de Santiago: the city of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia is named for St James the Apostle (or "Elder") and has been a pilgrimage destination since medieval times. There are pilgrimage hiking trails from several cathedral cities across Europe, converging on Castile and León as they near Santiago. The main trail is from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on the French border, with stop-offs in this region at San Juan de Ortega, Burgos, Tardajos, Hornillos Del Camino, Hontanas, Castrojeriz, Itero del Castro, Fromista, Ledigos, Sahagun, Bercianos del Real Camino, Mansilla de las Mulas, León, San Martín del Camino, Ponferrada, Villafranca del Bierzo, Trabadelo, Vega de Valcarce, thence into Galicia.
• Via de la Plata is older, a Roman trade route joining from Andalusia via Salamanca, and another trail from Madrid and Valladolid joins near León.

• Bars: lots and lots.
• Wine: Castile and León has a dozen wine-growing regions distinguished as DOP, denominaciones de origen protegidas. These mostly produce red from the Tempranillo grape.

Castile and Leon is one of Spain's safest regions. Some neighbourhoods in larger cities like Valladolid may be less appealing, but are rarely unwelcoming.

With agriculture being such an important part of the region's culture and economy, animals can be seen roaming everywhere. Avoid walking on farmland and do not disturb livestock.

• Beiras – central Portuguese region
• Extremadura
• Northern Portugal