Village
Miranda de Ebro is a city of more than 36,000 inhabitants on both banks of the Ebro, at the north-eastern tip of the province of Burgos, next to the boundaries with Álava and La Rioja, and a major railway and industrial hub, with chemical, logistics and aerospace industry. Although there have been settlements in the area since the Iron Age, the first historical mention dates from 757, cited in the Crónica Albeldense among the towns destroyed by Alfonso I. Alfonso VI granted it a charter in 1099, and the arrival of the railway in 1862 marked a turning point that industrialised the city through the 20th century, to the point that its inhabitants are nicknamed the railwaymen. In the old quarter of Aquende, the Romanesque church of the Espíritu Santo and the bridge of Charles III, from 1777, stand out.
Monument
Historically known as the church of San Nicolás until the Civil War, it is the oldest church in Miranda de Ebro, overlooking the river above the bridge of Charles III; the town's fuero, of 1099, already mentions an earlier church also dedicated to San Nicolás on the same site. Predominantly Romanesque in style with hints of early Gothic, it has a Latin-cross plan and a single nave, and a pentagonal apse of five bays separated by buttresses, dated to the second decade of the 13th century; its capitals with castles and lions allude to the union of Castile and León in 1230. Declared a historic-artistic monument in 1931, it suffered a serious fire in the Civil War of 1936 and remained closed for 36 years until its reopening for worship in 1972 under the patronage of the Holy Spirit.
Monument
Raised in the 1770s to replace the one swept away by the flood of 1775, it crosses the Ebro with semicircular cutwaters and finishes its parapet with a cast iron railing and two lions holding the royal and municipal coats of arms.
Monument
On top of the La Picota hill, above the Aquende quarter, the walls of the old medieval fortress that watched over the Ebro crossing survive, today turned into the finest viewpoint over the city and its meadowland.
Monument
Built in the 16th century in a style midway between late Gothic and the Renaissance, it fell prey to the flames, and its repair was carried out by prisoners from the concentration camp set up in the city. Also called Santa María de Altamira, it stands in the heart of the historic centre, next to the Teatro Apolo, with the robust look of a fortress. The works, directed by Miguel de Mendizábal and Martín de Ibarguren among other master builders, began in 1523 and continued until 1571, on the site of the former Hospital del Chantre, which provisioned pilgrims of the Camino Vasco del Interior. It is a hall-church, with three naves of equal height and star-ribbed vaults over sixteen columns. Days before the civil war broke out, in July 1936, its altarpiece burned.
Historical milestone
The fuero that Alfonso VI granted to Miranda de Ebro in January 1099 shaped the town's history for centuries: its people repeatedly insisted that their rights be respected, and monarchs such as Sancho III, Alfonso VIII and Fernando IV successively confirmed its validity. The document preserved today, held in the Archivo Histórico Municipal of Miranda de Ebro, is precisely the confirmation granted by Fernando IV on 24 February 1298, measuring 665 by 850 millimetres, and it records both Alfonso VI's original text and its later extensions. That fuero spurred the settlement of the Ebro ford, and that same text already mentions the Llanos de San Juan, the spot where the city's oldest pilgrimage is held.
Historical milestone
The Miranda de Ebro concentration camp was created in July 1937, with advice from the Nazi SS, on a 42,000-square-metre plot belonging to the company Sulfatos Españoles, between the railway tracks and the Bayas river, and remained open until 1947, the last to close in Spain. The BOE had ordered on 5 July of that year the construction of four camps in Burgos to relieve the overcrowding of Republican prisoners captured in the north, and Miranda was chosen for its closeness to the front and its good communications; the townspeople themselves, forced to do so, built the enclosure in barely two months, in appalling conditions. With capacity planned for 1,500 prisoners, that limit was soon exceeded; over time around 80,000 prisoners would pass through the camp, close to 15,000 of them foreigners.
Historical milestone
The first regular train service arrived in 1862 and turned Miranda into a railway junction and one of the province's few industrial cities, a turn that multiplied its population and created the Allende quarter.
Activity
The festival of San Juan del Monte, a pilgrimage documented since 1347 and the oldest and most important in northern Spain, is held in Miranda de Ebro on Whit Monday and the preceding weekend, organised by the Cofradía de San Juan del Monte with the collaboration of the town council. During the three central days, brass bands and cuadrillas — dressed in their smocks, red neckerchief and beret — parade through the streets and climb the hill in an atmosphere of bustle and joy that marks the mirandeses' feeling throughout the year. In 2015 the festival regained the declaration of Interés Turístico Nacional (the highest state-level recognition for popular festivals) that it had already held in 1975, and since 1996 it has also held the title of Fiesta de Interés Turístico de Castilla y León (the touristic distinction of the autonomous community).
Food and drink
The obligatory lunch on the Monday of the pilgrimage is salt cod and delgadillas, thin, elongated blood sausages that the Miranda groups carry up the hill and share in the open beside the saint's hermitage.
Activity
Among the events of the Miranda festivities is a festival devoted to blood sausage, with grilled-morcilla eating contests that make the most Burgos of cured meats the star of the street for a few days.
Nature
The Montes de Miranda de Ebro y Ameyugo, popularly known as Monte de Miranda or Monte de San Juan, are a special area of conservation occupying the eastern foothills of the Obarenes south of the city, covering 3,633 hectares with an average altitude of 678 metres. It has holm-oak and Pyrenean-oak woods crossed by trails, with the desfiladero del Oroncillo cutting its way south, next to a notable juniper stand of prickly juniper and box, and it hosts an important colony of griffon vulture, with 159 pairs recorded in 2005. Here the festival of San Juan del Monte is held every year, with the cuadrillas set up in huts beside the hill; the climb to the alto de San Juan del Monte, with ramps of up to 14%, is a regular stage finish of the Vuelta a Burgos.
Nature
The river splits the city into two halves with names of medieval origin: Aquende, the old town at the foot of the hill, and Allende, the industrial expansion that grew on the other side after the railway arrived.