History & Culture

Castile and León (Castilla y León) is the heartland of Spain -historically, aesthetically and culturally- and is the region that shaped the nation's history. Its lofty central plains with open skies was frontier land, where castles and walled towns marked the slow push south of Christian forces in their struggle against the Moors. Spain's legendary hero, El Cid, was born here and was instrumental in the expulsion of the Moors from the region.

Castile's vernacular language emerged as the literary language of the nation, and epic poems were penned to celebrate Spain's heroes, like El Cid. The age of discovery brought forth soldiers and priests with the banner of the Castle and the Lion to create a Spanish empire overseas. Castilla y León is a mystical land where there are as many churches as there are fortified ramparts. "Castile," the famous sixteenth century mystic Saint Teresa of Ávila used to say, "is where you are closer to God." Teresa, quintessentially Castilian, combined mysticism with sound common sense, and indeed the men and women of Castile and León have been shaped by harsh winters and seeringly hot dry summers into people of forbearance and fortitude that are known for their austerity and innate sense of pride. Castilian villages of stone and wood with porticoed central squares are equally austere but nevertheless enchanting.

Once made up of several kingdoms, Castile and León today forms the largest autonomous region, composed of nine provinces: Avila, Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid, and Zamora. Each has its own marked identity but all share an extremely rich heritage. The capitals of all nine provinces were well established cities in the early Middle Ages and each boasts a cathedral and scores of monasteries and convents from the past. The pilgrims' route to Santiago de Compostela, which passed through the provinces of Burgos, Palencia and León, introduced Romanesque and then Gothic architecture and art forms into the region, and a magnificent cultural legacy emerged that combined new aesthetic ideas with the region's inherent spirituality.

 

In gastronomy, Castile and León is renowned for its baby lamb and suckling pig, its superb chorizo sausage, hearty bean stews and garlic soup. The region is also a premiere producer of splendid wines that come from the Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Toro wine regions.

Attractions

Castile and León stands on a high plateau, with mountain ranges to the north that shield it from the coast. To the east the Iberian mountains separates the region from the basin of the Ebro River, and to the south the Gredos and Guadarrama ranges sever the plateau into two, separating Castile and León from Madrid and Castile-La Mancha. And although many imagine Castilla y León as a vast dry plain in which wheatfields cover the land, the region is surprisingly mountainous, dotted with lakes, often covered with forest land, and drained by the majestic Duero River that meanders west through the region to Portugal.

Click here for Spain Map