Logbook · 2 places

What to see and do in Arlanzón

What to see and do in Arlanzón (Burgos (Alfoz), Burgos): 2 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Nature

Towns near Arlanzón

Spain › Castile and León › Burgos › Burgos (Alfoz) › Arlanzón

What to see and do in Arlanzón

Arlanzón
Village
Arlanzón is a municipality in the comarca of Alfoz de Burgos, situated 20 kilometres east of the provincial capital, on the banks of the river that gives it its name, downstream from Villasur de Herreros and at an altitude of 1001 metres; it also groups together the minor local entities of Agés, Galarde, Santovenia de Oca and Zalduendo, and has a total of 425 inhabitants. Settled by Vascones during the Middle Ages, in the 12th century its inhabitants asked the Castilian king for permission to speak Basque in the village markets, whose name already appears as “Arlançón” in the Poema de Mio Cid. It belonged, under abbatial jurisdiction, to the Monastery of las Huelgas, whose abbess appointed the ordinary mayor, and in 2015 the town was included in the retrospective inventory that Spain presented to Unesco on the Camino de Santiago. The patronal festival, in honour of San Miguel Arcángel, is celebrated on 29 September with a high mass and procession, in thanksgiving for the harvests.
The Arlanzón reservoir
Nature
A concrete, curved-plan gravity dam, built in the municipalities of Villasur de Herreros and Pineda de la Sierra to regulate the headwaters of the river Arlanzón and prevent the snowmelt of the Sierra de la Demanda from causing the floods that periodically inundated Burgos and its lower course, as recalled by the water marks preserved at the city's town hall. It was decided on after the 1930 flood, built between 1929 and 1933, and is managed by the Confederación Hidrográfica del Duero. Its capacity of 22 million cubic metres proved insufficient, so in 1983 the Úzquiza reservoir was built a few kilometres away; it now handles the river's main regulation while both dams are managed jointly to supply the Burgos area.