Sepúlveda

Sepúlveda's story begins in the Iron Age when a Celtic tribe called the Arévacos built a settlement on Somosierra hill. Between 98 and 93 BC, Roman consul Titus Didius conquered the upper Duratón valley and established a new city at Los Mercados, seven kilometers away near Duratón. This Roman city, known as Confluenta, administered the territory while Sepúlveda remained a small village with several rural Roman sanctuaries nearby.

After the Visigothic period, the area was largely abandoned until medieval times. Sepúlveda first appears in historical records in the Chronicle of Alfonso III, which mentions its depopulation during Alfonso I's campaigns. Count Fernán González repopulated the town in 940, establishing Christian control beyond the Duero River. The settlement changed hands several times during Muslim raids - Almanzor attempted to retake it in 979, succeeded in 984, but Christians permanently regained control in 1010 under Sancho García. Fernán González granted Sepúlveda a charter that became the legal foundation for Castilian frontier law, later extended to cities like Zaragoza and Teruel.

Sepúlveda's exceptional architectural heritage earned it historic-artistic status in 1951. The town preserves significant civil monuments, including the Castle of Fernán González, which evolved from Roman fortress to Arab alcazaba before reconstruction under the famous count. A 16th-century building with a continuous balcony adjoins the castle towers, supporting the plaza's clock. The old jail now houses a didactic museum showing prison life and contains the local tourist office.

Among the notable mansions, Casa del Conde de Sepúlveda features a heraldic balcony-altarpiece supported by caryatids, while Casa de los Proaño (popularly called Casa del Moro) displays a Plateresque facade with a Moorish head over a scimitar, commemorating Fernán González's legendary conquest.

The town's Romanesque churches represent its medieval splendor. The Church of Virgen de la Peña, dating from the 12th century, showcases a single nave with barrel vaulting and a semicircular apse decorated with Jaca checkerboard patterns. Its remarkable south portico features three archivolts depicting Apocalypse elders, angels with phylacteries, and a tympanum showing Christ Pantocrator surrounded by tetramorph symbols. The church houses a Romanesque statue of the town's patron saint.

Sepúlveda stands at about 1,000 metres beside the Hoces del Río Duratón, river gorges protected as a natural park, and the views from its miradores have been painted by artists such as Ignacio de Zuloaga. Unusually, its partly arcaded Plaza Mayor lies outside the old walls, which had seven gates, among them the Puerta del Azogue and the well-preserved Puerta del Río. The Romanesque church of El Salvador can be picked out from almost anywhere.

The twelfth-century church of Nuestra Señora de la Peña has a south portico carved with Christ Pantocrator, and Santiago has a Mozarabic brick apse and a crypt with tombs cut into the rock. Count Fernán González repopulated Sepúlveda in 940 and granted it a charter that became a foundation of Castilian frontier law, and the Museo de los Fueros occupies the church of Santos Justo y Pastor. The local dish is lechazo roasted in a wood oven.

Sepúlveda joined Los Pueblos Más Bonitos de España in 2016. The label is awarded by a private association, not the state: a village applies and is audited against around 40 criteria, from how its historic buildings are conserved to the upkeep of its streets, and members are reviewed and can lose it. Sepúlveda is one of 31 members in Castilla y León, out of 126 in Spain. See all heritage towns in Castilla y León.