Day trips from Madrid

Chinchón's Plaza Mayor — a ring of timber balconies and arcaded facades that has hosted bullfights, executions, and Orson Welles — makes this Madrid province town one of the most distinctive squares in Spain.

A walled medieval village of barely 300 souls, its cobbled lanes and single gateway so well preserved it feels lifted straight from the 15th century.

A village spilling down a rocky spur above the Duratón river gorges, ringed by Romanesque churches and the remains of Fernán González's castle.

Rising above the confluence of the Eresma and Voltoya rivers in Segovia province, Coca is defined by one of Spain's best-preserved castles and layers of history stretching from Iron Age city-state to Roman municipium to medieval fortress town.

A russet-stone medieval town in north-east Segovia, its arcaded plaza, town gate and palace façades glowing red in the late-afternoon light.

A cathedral city in Guadalajara province, its bishop's castle, Romanesque churches, and medieval street plan rising above the Henares valley where Celtiberians, Romans, and Moors all left their mark.

A castle town in Segovia province whose medieval street plan, intact walls, and castle of the Dukes of Alburquerque make it one of the most complete historic ensembles on the Castilian meseta.

Perched on a hilltop in Soria, Medinaceli holds Spain's only three-arched Roman triumphal arch, an Arab gateway still standing in its medieval walls, and a vast restored ducal palace overlooking a Roman-era plaza.

A frontier castle town on the Duero in Soria, where two Romanesque churches still stand from the era when Castile and al-Andalus fought over this crossing for two centuries.

Crowned by one of Spain's most dramatic castles — a long white ship of stone on a ridge — now home to the provincial Wine Museum in the heart of Ribera del Duero.

A castle town on the old frontier between Christian and Moorish Spain, Berlanga de Duero rises above the Duero line in Soria with intact medieval walls, a grand collegiate church, and streets that still follow their medieval plan.

A cathedral city on the Castilian meseta where a Gothic cathedral, intact town walls, a hilltop castle, and the ghost of a Roman city occupy the same bend in the Río Ucero in Soria province.

A hilltop castle keep watches over a near-perfect plaza of timbered houses and a Renaissance palace, deep in Burgos's Ribera del Duero wine country.