Spain Guide
Castilla y León and La Rioja
The foundations of modern Spain were laid in the kingdom of Castile. Incorporated within the modern comunidad of Castilla y León, it's a land of frontier fortresses – castillos – and became the most powerful force of the Reconquest. By the eleventh century, Castile had merged with and swallowed León; through Isabel's marriage to Fernando in 1469 it encompassed Aragón, Catalunya and eventually the entire peninsula. The monarchs of this triumphant age were enthusiastic patrons of the arts, endowing their cities with superlative monuments, above which, quite literally, tower the great Gothic cathedrals of Salamanca, León and Burgos.
These three cities are the major draws, though in Valladolid, Zamora and even unsung Palencia and Soria are outstanding reminders of the glory days of Old Castile. But equally in many lesser towns – notably Ciudad Rodrigo, El Burgo de Osma and Covarrubias – you'll be struck by an incongruous wealth of art and architecture.
Castilian soil is fertile, and the vast central plateau – the 700- to 1000-metre-high meseta – is given over almost entirely to grain. Huge areas stretch to the horizon without a single landmark, not even a tree, though each spring a vivid red carpet of poppies decorates fields and verges. There are a few enclaves of mountain scenery, from the Sierra de Francia in the southwest to the lakeland of the Sierra de Urbión in the east. Moreover, the Río Duero runs right across the province, at the heart of one of Spain's great wine-producing regions, Ribera del Duero; another, more famous wine region lies to the north in the autonomous comunidad of La Rioja, whose bodegas line the Río Ebro, spreading out from the likeable provincial capital of Logroño.
The final feature of the region is the host of Romanesque churches, monasteries and hermitages, a legacy of the Camino de Santiago, the great pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. It cuts through La Rioja and then heads west across the upper half of Castilla y León, taking in Burgos and León as well as many minor places of great interest, from Frómista in the central plains to Astorga and Villafranca del Bierzo.