Logbook · 9 places

What to see and do in Basconcillos del Tozo

What to see and do in Basconcillos del Tozo (Páramos, Burgos): 9 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 2 Nature · 2 Curiosities · 2 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Basconcillos del Tozo

Church of San Cosme y San Damián 100 m

Towns near Basconcillos del Tozo

Spain › Castile and León › Burgos › Páramos › Basconcillos del Tozo

What to see and do in Basconcillos del Tozo

Basconcillos del Tozo
Village
Basconcillos del Tozo is a municipality in the Páramos comarca, province of Burgos, head, together with La Piedra, of the so-called Tozo comarca, a transitional area towards the mountains with hard, long winters and short, dry summers. Its name alludes to the Vascones, a pre-Roman tribe that gave its name to the ethnic group until the early Middle Ages, and remains from the Palaeolithic and Neolithic have been found in its territory, among them chipped quartzites some 7,000 years old and a polished Neolithic axe kept in the Museo Provincial de Burgos. In the year 860 King Ordoño I charged Count Rodrigo with resettling the old city of Amaya; his son, Diego Porcelos, would later found Burgos, as part of the Castilian expansion process in which this area is set. The municipality, with about 275 inhabitants, sits on the páramo of La Lora, beside the upper course of the Rudrón, where seed potatoes and cereals sustain the economy; its parish church is dedicated to San Cosme and San Damián, patron saints celebrated every 26 September.
Cave of el Agua y sumidero del Hurón
Nature
The River Hurón sinks underground at the Cueva del Agua and runs some four kilometres of underground galleries before coming back to the light as the River Rudrón, one of the greatest karst features of the Geopark.
Church of San Cosme y San Damián
Monument
The parish church of the municipal capital, with Baroque features and an apse that preserves wall paintings, in a moorland village set at 917 metres of altitude in the heart of the comarca of Páramos.
Paintings of the Basconcillos apse
Curiosity
Beneath the Baroque additions of the parish church, wall paintings have survived in the apse, one of the few examples of painted decoration preserved in the rural churches of these moorlands.
The twelve villages of the Tozo
Curiosity
The municipality brings together a dozen settlements: Arcellares, Barrio Panizares, Fuente Úrbel, Hoyos del Tozo, La Piedra, Prádanos del Tozo, La Rad, San Mamés de Abar, Santa Cruz del Tozo, Talamillo and Trashaedo.
Destruction during the French retreat
Historical milestone
In 1812 French troops destroyed buildings in the municipality during their retreat through northern Burgos, an episode that left its mark on the memory of the Tozo villages and on several of their churches.
Arrival of electric light in the Tozo
Historical milestone
A hydroelectric installation brought electricity to the municipality's villages in 1927, an early date for moorland hamlets that had known no energy other than that of water and of livestock.
Morcilla de Burgos in the Tozo pig slaughters
Food and drink
The rice black pudding covered by the Morcilla de Burgos geographical indication is made at the pig-killing in these villages with horcal onion, lard and spices, and it is the basis of their winter stews.
Archaeological site of Valladar
Nature
The Valladar site documents both a medieval occupation and traces of prehistoric settlement, in a district where polished axes and Neolithic tools have also come to light.