Logbook · 4 places

What to see and do in Merindad de Valdivielso

What to see and do in Merindad de Valdivielso (Las Merindades, Burgos): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Nature

How far each place is from the centre of Merindad de Valdivielso

San Pedro de Tejada 3.5 km
Tower of los Fernández Velasco de Valdenoceda 5.3 km

Towns near Merindad de Valdivielso

What to see in Valdivielso 1 km · 2 places
What to see in Los Altos 7.2 km · 2 places
What to see in Rucandio 8.1 km · 2 places
What to see in Quintanaopio 10 km · 1 place
What to see in Merindad de Cuesta-Urria 11 km · 3 places
What to see in Cantabrana 12 km · 2 places
What to see in Medina de Pomar 12 km · 5 places
What to see in Aguas Cándidas 13 km · 2 places

Spain › Castile and León › Burgos › Las Merindades › Merindad de Valdivielso

What to see and do in Merindad de Valdivielso

Merindad de Valdivielso
Village
Merindad de Valdivielso is a municipality of 384 inhabitants whose capital, Quecedo, brings together fourteen villages along the valley that the Ebro opens between the desfiladero de los Hocinos, through which it enters, and that of la Horadada, through which it leaves towards the Cereceda reservoir; the sierra de la Tesla, a Special Protection Area for its griffon vultures, closes the valley to the north. From the year 860 it came under the lordship of Count Rodrigo, within the Condado de Castilla, as a border area against the Muslims; later the monks of San Pedro de Tejada and Oña promoted resettlement and created the parishes. Its councillors used to meet beneath the holm oak of Quecedo. The municipality preserves rock-cut hermitages, the tower of the Fernández de Velasco family in Valdenoceda and the desfiladero de Los Hocinos, the valley's natural gateway.
San Pedro de Tejada
Monument
A Romanesque hermitage on a hillock on the outskirts of Puente-Arenas, in the municipality of Merindad de Valdivielso, at the foot of the Sierra de la Tesla, considered one of the most important works of Romanesque art in Burgos. Its history goes back to the year 850, when the monastery it belonged to, now vanished, was founded; in the 11th century that monastery came under the authority of the nearby Monastery of San Salvador de Oña. It stands on privately owned land, so visits are not unrestricted and must be arranged with the owners, in a valley that holds half a dozen more medieval churches.
Gorge of Los Hocinos
Nature
A gorge through which the Ebro enters the valley of Valdivielso between limestone walls, the natural gateway of an orchard set between the sierra of La Tesla and the Montes Obarenes, through which La Horadada also opens.
Tower of los Fernández Velasco de Valdenoceda
Monument
The Fernández Velasco Tower, in Valdenoceda, is a 12th-13th-century building that was already abandoned and in ruins by the 16th century; rectangular in plan, twenty metres high, with thick walls topped by battlements, it preserves, despite 20th-century alterations, some Gothic elements, such as mullioned windows and arrow slits, and coats of arms of the Velasco family. It is one of several seigneurial towers that dot the Valdivielso valley, alongside the Loja tower, that of San Martín and Malvecino Castle, witnesses to feudal control over the Ebro route. Given generic protection since 1949 under the decree that placed all Spanish castles under state guardianship, it was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1985, and its surroundings were delimited in 2013.