Alceda

In the eighteenth century, Alceda was recorded in the Catastro de la Ensenada as a place under the lordship of the Marquis of Aguilar, to whom residents paid five reales de vellón a year. The land was subject to tithes, a third going to the archbishopric and two thirds to the chapter of the collegiate church of Santillana. Farming centred on wheat and maize, with yields graded across three qualities of land.

The village also had eight flour mills and several apiaries. Livestock dominated the local economy: the census counted nearly 400 sheep and goats, over 150 cattle of various ages, 30 breeding sows, and 40 pairs of oxen for ploughing. The population stood at 61 householders, 15 widows, and one orphan, among them eight registered beggars.

There were 90 inhabited houses and five uninhabitable ones, along with a tavern owned by the council, an inn leased by José de Ceballos, and three spice shops. By the mid-nineteenth century, as recorded in Madoz's geographical dictionary, Alceda belonged administratively to the municipality of Corvera de Toranzo and fell under the judicial district of Villacarriedo. The village comprised three neighbourhoods, Alceda itself, Barrio del Tojo, and Bustanuño, with a combined total of 70 houses and 274 inhabitants.

One notable building was a three-storey stone house built in 1833 at the foot of the Camino Real. The road passing through, the Camino Real del Escudo, carried heavy traffic between Burgos and Santander. Agriculture still centred on maize and wheat, with smaller amounts of beans, potatoes, walnuts, chestnuts, and flax.

Cattle and sheep remained the main livestock, and hunting for deer, hare, and partridge was common.

Alceda was designated a Historic-Artistic Site in 1985, recognised for its concentration of stone manor houses bearing family crests, most of them ranged along what was once the Camino Real and is now the N-623 road. Five buildings stand out in particular.

The Palacio de Bustamante Rueda was built between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and shows architectural features ranging from Renaissance to Baroque. It is made up of a four-storey tower, a main residential block, a small chapel, and an outbuilding used as a barn or stable. The tower's east face carries a heraldic shield, and the main façade has notable balconies at the second floor. The chapel, added in the eighteenth century, is small with a pitched roof and a modest bell gable. The building has been unoccupied for some years but remains largely intact.

The Palacio de Mercadal was built in 1737 by architect José de Casuso. The square residential block is enclosed within a high wall that also surrounds a chapel and other outbuildings, entered through a monumental Baroque gateway. A distinctive enclosed gallery on the west façade rests on four pillars and is topped with four stone balls and a pinnacle.

The Casona-Torre de Ruiz Bustamante, built in the seventeenth century using dressed stone and rubble masonry, has a three-arch portico facing south and a three-storey tower rising above the two-storey main body, finished with pinnacles and bearing a shield on its east face.

The Casona de Mora, built in the seventeenth century and once belonging to Juan de Mora y Villegas, is a two-storey square building with a rubble masonry construction, except for the main façade, which has a deep portico formed by two round arches with a large heraldic shield above.

The Casona-Torre de Ceballos has its origins in the sixteenth century. Its classically styled gateway opens through a surrounding masonry wall into a garden. The house features a Doric-columned portico and moulded wooden cornices; the adjoining four-storey tower is topped with pinnacles. The wider historic centre also contains traditional houses, indianas (houses built by returning emigrants), wash-houses, mills, and the old school, as well as the church of San Pedro.

Alceda is also known for two local food products: quesada and sobao pasiego, the latter holding IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) status as a quality artisan product tied to its home territory. Both can be found at local businesses including Luca, Casa Olmo, and Rosi.