Montealegre de Campos

Montealegre de Campos has been a place of importance for well over two thousand years. In the Iron Age it was a significant Vaccean city, and that role continued under Roman rule, when the area supported several villas. The town's Roman identity is preserved in a remarkable bronze hospitality tablet from 134 AD, which recorded the ties of neighbourship between various settlements of Amallobriga and the municipality of Cauca. At that time the town itself bore the name Intercatia.

After the disruptions of the early medieval period, the land was resettled and the town found a new strategic importance. A small fortified enclosure was built by the Crown on the tip of the promontory — the kind of hilltop stronghold that the noble Meneses family would later hold as their seat of power. Working outward from their original base at Villalba de los Alcores, the Meneses gradually extended their control across the surrounding region.

By the end of the medieval period, a prominent member of the family — Juan Alfonso de Alburquerque — built the castle that still stands today, placing it at the rear of the promontory. It became the principal fortress of the Meneses lineage in the comarca of Tierra de Campos, and it is the most visible landmark of the town to this day.

The castle dominates the town and houses an interpretation centre on medieval life. Two parish churches, Santa María and San Pedro, reflect the town's long history, as does the Ermita de Nuestra Señora de Serosas and the smaller Ermita del Humilladero. A Museo del Pastor — a shepherd's museum — speaks to the pastoral tradition of the Tierra de Campos plain, and several notable noble houses survive in the town.