Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Covarrubias

What to see and do in Covarrubias (Arlanza, Burgos): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Activities · 2 Curiosities

How far each place is from the centre of Covarrubias

The legend of doña Urraca walled up alive 100 m

Towns near Covarrubias

Spain › Castile and León › Burgos › Arlanza › Covarrubias

What to see and do in Covarrubias

Covarrubias
Village
Covarrubias is a town in the Arlanza district, in the province of Burgos, situated on the banks of the river of the same name and sheltered from the north winds by the sierra de las Mamblas, which creates a microclimate that allows cherry trees to be grown. In the 10th century, count Fernán González and his son made it the capital of the Infantazgo de Covarrubias, which is why it is known as "the cradle of Castile"; its inhabitants are called racheles and rachelas. A town of 501 inhabitants, it was declared a historic-artistic site in 1965 for its network of wooden houses, and preserves the tower of Fernán González, the only Castilian fortress predating the 11th century. Together with Lerma and Santo Domingo de Silos it forms the Triángulo del Arlanza, and in July it holds its medieval market and cherry festival.
The tower keep of Fernán González
Monument
A tenth-century defensive tower of rectangular plan and the shape of a truncated pyramid, with walls of up to four metres at the base. It is the only Castilian fortress earlier than the eleventh century still standing.
The legend of doña Urraca walled up alive
Curiosity
Tradition tells that the infanta Urraca was walled up alive in the tower on her father's orders as a punishment. The tale has stuck so firmly that many residents still call the tower of count Fernán González doña Urraca.
The oldest organ in Castile still in use
Monument
The collegiate church of San Cosme and San Damián, of the fifteenth century, preserves a seventeenth-century organ still in use. The ensemble is completed by a sixteenth-century cloister, Baroque altarpieces and a parish museum with Romanesque capitals.
The tomb of Princess Kristina of Norway
Curiosity
Kristina of Norway came to Castile in 1258 to marry the infante Felipe, brother of Alfonso X, and died a few years later. She rests in the collegiate church in a Gothic stone tomb with an arcade of ten openings.
The medieval market and the cherry festival
Activity
In the middle of July the town holds at once its medieval market and the cherry festival, the fruit of its riverside orchards. The event draws more than fifteen thousand visitors to a built fabric of timber-framed houses.