The chimneys of Palenzuela
Take a breath of fresh air and regain your distance from the world . Park the hectic pace and enjoy the simple pleasures. There is a region where time collapses on the wide cereal fields to later seek shade on the banks of the rivers, flanked by poplars and almond trees. Here the only urgency is to stop and breathe. Welcome to palentine cerrato , an unknown corner where the Catholic Monarchs, Carlos V or José Bonaparte left their mark
From its physiognomy drawn by hills comes the name of this territory that extends through the south of Palencia along some 1,700 km2 and which also includes a small part of Burgos and Valladolid . An ancestral land where old traditions survive and where the stone and adobe towns preserve their typical architecture.
Cerrato Valley, in Palencia
El Cerrato is Castilla in its purest form . A landscape dominated by ocher and green tones, a heritage made up of churches and monasteries, a medieval past embodied in walls, bridges and fortresses . But it is also a place with its own personality, owner and lord of certain elements that define its identity. where, if not, there are neighborhoods with excavated warehouses, cave-houses, shepherd's huts and plasterboards that pierce the moors forming a surreal picture?
SNACK AT THE WINERY
To Ortega y Gasset they seemed "peoples of earthlings, of men who live like ants" . We talk about the Cerrato wineries , the unique construction shared by many towns in the region. especially the capital, Baltanas , whose hull is dominated by the picturesque neighborhood of 374 wineries , carved into six levels in the guts of a hill. Due to their great heritage value, they have been declared Well of Cultural Interest.
Baltanas
Seen from afar, the set is beautiful with fireplaces that appear from the hill guarding the solitude of the valley. They say that the genius of modernism was inspired by them for the iconic smoke outlets that characterize La Pedrera : those hieratic warriors that seem to turn on themselves from the roof of the building. Ana Maria Ferrin supports this theory in his book Gaudí: of stone and fire.
Beyond its strange beauty and its oenological function (some keep barrels fifteen meters below ground), this neighborhood of wineries maintains a social work such as meeting point for family and friends . Going to them for a snack is a guarantee of eating and drinking wonderfully.
THE WEIGHT OF THE STORY
In addition to Baltanás, where you can visit the Cerrado Museum to get to know the region in depth, there are also wineries in Owners , sitting next to the Torozos mountains and declared a Historic-Artistic Complex for its beautiful urban framework of arcades and balconies . here the story left his mark on the Palacio de los Buendía , where Fernando de Aragón arranged his marriage with Isabel de Castilla and where both saw the birth of his eldest daughter.
The Cerrato Museum, perfect for getting to know the region
Dueñas, which has jewels like the house of napoleon (which was Joseph Bonaparte's headquarters during the French invasion) and the Cistercian monastery of San Isidro , better known as the trap, It is the place where water takes on greater prominence. And not just because he Carrion River pours its flow into the Pisuerga but also because the Castile Channel , the great work of hydraulic engineering of the 18th century that opens a navigable gap in the steppe.
THE OLDEST CHURCH IN SPAIN
It is on this earth, yes, specifically in Baths of Cerrato . is the Visigothic basilica of San Juan de Baños , which was erected by the King Recesvinto in the year 661 . They say that Carlos V himself stopped to admire it on what was his last trip to the Yuste Monastery . Today this relic, declared a National Monument, attracts many visitors.
Visigoth Basilica of San Juan de Baños
Less ancient, although much worse preserved, is the Church of Santa Eulalia, in Palenzuela , of which only an imposing Gothic skeleton remains, flown over by birds. This town, near the confluence of the Arlanza and Arlanzón rivers , conserves a medieval fortress, just as Torquemada conserves a monumental bridge with twenty-five eyes that crosses the Pisuerga gap.
IMMACULATED WHITE GALLERIES
El Cerrato is a place to soak up the landscape . And nothing like doing it from Vertavillo which, due to its elevated position over a valley, constitutes a fabulous viewpoint. Especially at the gate of the wall, next to the roll of justice (those stone columns that served to indicate that the town had legal capacity), there is a beautiful panorama over the horizon of spikes.
This is also how you appreciate what they call the eyes of the closed , which are nothing but the plasterboards of Hornillos . Some galleries that in their day were excavated to deep geological levels for the extraction of gypsum and that, today abandoned, seem to watch from the hill to the ruins of the Castillo de los Enríquez.
Church of Santa Eulalia, in Palenzuela
AND FOR THE PALATE?
There is no trip to this corner of Palencia that does not come seasoned with its forceful gastronomy. Because this land crossed by two wine routes ( the D.O. of Cigales and Arlanza ) is famous for the quality of its products and the exquisiteness of its dishes. To the cheese , elaborated in an artisan way, and to the bread , from a first class flour, two protagonists join: the red peppers from Torquemada, sweet and meaty, and the horcal onion from Palenzuela.
Also standard, of course, is the suckling lamb, which they prepare spectacularly at the Cerrato Inn , in tariego , a typical Castilian winery where the sweetbreads are also delicious. And even with heat, no one fails to comfort the typical toast soup of The Acedo Slope , in Valdecañas del Cerrato , where they make it in a clay oven.
Cerrato Inn