Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Espinosa de los Monteros

What to see and do in Espinosa de los Monteros (Las Merindades, Burgos): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 2 Activities · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Espinosa de los Monteros

Pilgrimage of las Machorras 7.3 km

Towns near Espinosa de los Monteros

Spain › Castile and León › Burgos › Las Merindades › Espinosa de los Monteros

What to see and do in Espinosa de los Monteros

Espinosa de los Monteros
Village
Espinosa de los Monteros is a town of some 1,630 inhabitants in the Las Merindades comarca, in the north of the province of Burgos, situated at the foot of the Cantabrian Mountains at 762 metres above sea level, in a valley watered by the río Trueba. Inhabited since prehistory by the Coniscos and later by Romans and Visigoths, it was a place of passage between Cantabria and the plateau until around the year 1006, when Count Sancho García created there the Cuerpo de los Monteros de Cámara, charged with watching over the sleep of the kings of Castile, from which the town takes its name. In 1808 it was the scene of a battle between Spanish and French troops during the Peninsular War. It is, after the capital, the Burgos municipality with the most listed monuments, among them the Torre Ilustre of the Velasco family.
Tower of los Monteros
Monument
A fourteenth-century fortification recently restored that recalls the Monteros de Espinosa, the corps that for centuries watched over the sleep of the kings of Castile and that gave the villa its surname.
Pilgrimage of las Machorras
Activity
Las Machorras, a hamlet of Espinosa de los Monteros at the northern tip of Burgos, next to Cantabria and the Basque Country, honours the Virgen de las Nieves as its patroness every 5 August with traditional dances and native sports. The festivities begin with the planting of the Maya, a pole decked with a flag and decorations, fixed to the ground with ropes and wooden wedges as a kind of starting shot. Among the most characteristic figures of the celebration is the Bobo de Las Machorras, a local resident who dresses flamboyantly and carries enormous black tongs. The pilgrimage-festival brings together people from the neighbouring villages of this pasiego territory, watered by the river Trueba.
The mountain passes of Lunada and Estacas de Trueba
Activity
Two mountain passes cross towards Cantabria from the municipality: the portillo de Lunada, at 1,350 metres, and Las Estacas de Trueba, at 1,154, both classics of cycle touring and gateways to the meadows of the Cordillera.
Sobaos, quesada, and pasiego cheese
Food and drink
The pasiego valleys of Espinosa have long made artisan cheese, butter churned in a skin and sobaos kneaded with that same butter, to which are added heather honey and wood-oven bread.