Presencio

Presencio almost certainly came into existence in the early years of the Reconquista. Documents place it in the Campo de Muñó, within the old County of Castile, and over time its good agricultural land helped it grow into a substantial settlement.

By the late medieval period Presencio had joined the behetrías — free towns that surrendered to a chosen lord in exchange for protection from royal interference. The arrangement had an unusual architectural consequence: because no noble could legally become a resident or even spend the night in a behetría, there were no great houses bearing noble coats of arms, and the town had to defend itself with its own walls. Only the main gate survives today.

Royal favour still reached the town. A document survives in which King Juan II of Castile granted Presencio certain privileges. Later, during the papacy of Leo X (1513–1521), the town received special papal bulls annexing the depopulated settlements of Villa Çisla and Asturianos; the original parchment is still held in the parish archive. The abandoned settlements of Sant Millán de Perros and Villa Ferretea also lie within the municipal boundary.

By 1778 the lordship of Presencio belonged to the Duke of Medinaceli, whose name lives on in one of the town's streets. A snapshot from 1840 shows 180 houses, 138 householders, and 551 inhabitants, with the church served by five beneficed priests, an organist, and a sacristan.

The town's population peaked at 725 in 1910. Since then the numbers have fallen steadily, and the trend shows no sign of reversing.

The parish church of San Andrés is the town's most significant building. Dating from the Renaissance and declared a Bien de Interés Cultural — placing its upkeep in the hands of the Junta de Castilla y León — it announces itself from a distance through its wide espadaña bell tower, which carries four large bells, a smaller bell above them, and a weathervane at the very top. On the exterior apse stands a figure of Saint Andrew crucified on the diagonal cross associated with him.

Inside, the church holds what are considered among the finest pieces of goldsmithing in the entire province of Burgos: a silver cross and monstrance in the Burgalese style, both described as technically flawless. There are also polychrome carvings, stone reliefs, and religious paintings on panel attributed to the Burgos painter Juan Sánchez and placed within the Hispano-Flemish school. The wrought-iron grille at the main entrance is thought to be of Romanesque origin and is one of very few of its kind preserved anywhere in Spain.

Of the several hermitages that once stood in the area, the Vera Cruz hermitage survives in poor condition, though its exterior retains two stone reliefs from the medieval period. More rewarding is the hermitage of Villacisla, built on the site of a village absorbed into Presencio at the end of the Middle Ages. It has a Romanesque interior apse with columns, capitals, and arching, and a porch outside. The image of Our Lady of Villacisla draws large crowds twice a year: once in May, when a procession walks the six kilometres to the hermitage on foot, and again on 8 September or the nearest weekend, when pilgrims come from surrounding villages as well.

The surviving medieval gate now serves as a meeting point. Beside it stands a Romanesque wayside cross originally from the Vera Cruz hermitage. The town's Gothic rollo pillar in the plaza — bearing the coat of arms of the House of Austria — and a pillory near the wine cellars are symbols of the civil and criminal jurisdiction Presencio once held, possibly granted by Philip II, who reportedly designated the town as a settlement for survivors of the Spanish Armada.

Tradition also associates a house on the plaza with Juana I of Castile. In September 1507, while transporting the body of her husband Philip I to Santa María del Campo, she is said to have stopped here to commission funeral masses from the priests of San Andrés.