Grajal de Campos

Grajal de Campos sits on ground that has been occupied since Celtic-Iberian times, when early settlers lived near a hill called Turrutalba, about two kilometres from the town's present location. Around 117 BC a Roman fortress may have stood on that same site, said to have been founded by the brothers Tiberius and Sempronius Gracchus — and the town's name may itself derive from *Gracca*, a form of their family name.

The first clear written record of the town dates to 874, during the reign of Alfonso III of Asturias. Under him, Grajal gained real institutional, cultural and commercial weight. By 960 it had become a regional market town and the seat of a county, a status that brought noble lordship — and eventually noble decline.

That lordship was not always easy on the people who lived under it. In 1624, the ordinary taxpaying residents of Grajal — the *pecheros*, those who bore the burden of dues and taxes — brought a case before the Royal Chancery of Valladolid against their counts. Led by mayors Lorenzo de Godos and Francisco Amigo Viejo, they complained of excessive tributes, arbitrary use of the town jail, and restrictions on everyday activities like selling wine or keeping livestock. The countess Beatriz de Menchaca y Castro defended the family's position on behalf of her son. An agreement was reached on 14 November 1624 and formally recorded on 31 December that year. The core payments — 400 reales and hens — stayed in place, but the most oppressive restrictions were eased.

Centuries later, in 1998, the town took a different kind of action: it purchased the Counts' Palace outright from its private owners for the symbolic price of six pesetas, rescuing a building that had fallen into serious decay.

The castle is considered the first purpose-built artillery castle in Spain. Designed by the architect Lorenzo de Aldonza and built between 1517 and 1521 on the orders of Hernando de Vega, it was completed by his son Juan de Vega. The plan is square, with four towers that housed the heaviest cannon, and the whole structure rises from a steeply sloped base — a deliberate design to deflect artillery fire rather than just withstand a siege.

The Counts' Palace was commissioned by the same Hernando de Vega and his wife Blanca Enríquez de Acuña, with construction running from 1517 to 1523, again under architect Lorenzo de Aldonza. It is built around a large central courtyard with both a lower and an upper cloister; the upper level is reached by a beautifully carved stone staircase. The building has numerous principal and secondary rooms, as well as a cellar with a wine press. The style is Italian Renaissance — influences that Juan de Vega brought back from time spent in Italy. The palace was declared a National Monument on 3 June 1931, and in 1998 the town purchased it from its private owners for the symbolic price of six pesetas, by which point it had deteriorated badly.

The town also has the Hermitage of the Virgen de las Puertas, along with the Hospital of Our Lady of La Antigua and the Convent of Our Lady of La Antigua.