Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Melgar de Fernamental

What to see and do in Melgar de Fernamental (Odra-Pisuerga, Burgos): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Melgar de Fernamental

The Canal de Castilla and the Abánades aqueduct 5.1 km

Towns near Melgar de Fernamental

Spain › Castile and León › Burgos › Odra-Pisuerga › Melgar de Fernamental

What to see and do in Melgar de Fernamental

Melgar de Fernamental
Village
Melgar de Fernamental is a town in the Burgos comarca of Odra-Pisuerga, on the banks of the Pisuerga river, with 1,496 inhabitants. Its name recalls Count Fernán Armentález, the resettler who in the year 950 granted a settlement charter to the place, then called Melgar de Suso, a charter later confirmed by Count García Fernández de Castilla and by Ferdinand III. The municipality brings together, along with Melgar, the villages of San Llorente de la Vega, Santa María Ananúñez, Tagarrosa and Valtierra de Riopisuerga. Through its territory ran the Via Aquitania, a Roman road between Astorga and Bordeaux and a branch of the Camino de Santiago, near the ancient Roman city of Dessobriga. Its church of the Asunción, begun in the 14th century in imitation of Burgos Cathedral, is among the largest in the province.
The church of la Asunción de Melgar
Monument
The church of the Asunción de Melgar de Fernamental combines two phases: begun in the 14th century on a Latin-cross plan, in imitation of Burgos Cathedral, it was largely rebuilt around 1560, in the mid-16th century, because of its poor condition, changing to a hall-church plan with a broad interior space. The 16th-century works were begun by the stonemason Juan de Escarza and, after his death, continued by his son Pedro de Escarza and by Pedro de la Torre Bueras, a stonemason from Trasmiera, until well into the 17th century. It preserves a Romanist main altarpiece completed in 1677 by the joiner Gabriel González de la Torre, a baroque walnut choir and a Gothic doorway from the school of Gil de Siloé. The tower, neoclassical and based on designs by Juan de Herrera, was built in the mid-18th century by Juan de Sagarvinaga, being finished in 1749.
The Canal de Castilla and the Abánades aqueduct
Nature
The great eighteenth-century hydraulic work crosses the municipal district with its line of poplars and locks. The aqueduct of Abánades, also called Puente del Rey, crosses the channel with a solid ashlar structure.
The charter of Fernán Armentález
Historical milestone
The charter (fuero) that Fernán Armentález granted around 950 gave Melgar de Fernamental its name and founding document. That same document contains the earliest known mention of Itero del Castillo, then called Fitero del Castiello.
The San José Fair
Activity
Every 19 March the town holds the agricultural machinery fair that marks the start of the season across the whole cereal comarca, with a display of implements, livestock and farm produce in the village streets.