Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Villagatón

What to see and do in Villagatón (Astorga, León): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Villagatón

Church of San Juan de Montealegre 11 km

Towns near Villagatón

Spain › Castile and León › León › Astorga › Villagatón

What to see and do in Villagatón

Villagatón
Village
Villagatón is a municipality of around 611 inhabitants in the montes de León, between 850 and 1,400 metres of altitude, crossed by the autovía del Noroeste. Its name recalls Count Gatón del Bierzo, who resettled the comarca in the 9th century, in the time of his brother Ordoño I; the calle del Palacio takes its name from the count's palace, and Brañuelas still has a railway station. The puerto del Manzanal, at 1,229 metres, serves as a natural pass between the Maragatería and El Bierzo. The municipality, rich in pine woods and with several wind farms, is home to roe deer, hares, foxes and wild boar, as well as a mushroom-foraging reserve where macrolepiota and boletus edulis are abundant. Cattle farming and the growing of potatoes, sugar beet, barley and wheat have traditionally been the livelihood of its residents.
Church of San Juan de Montealegre
Monument
The church of San Juan de Montealegre, also called San Juan de La Silva, was a monastery situated on the Roman road Vía Nova, deep in the heart of the Montes de León, within the municipal boundary of Villagatón. Probably founded in the 10th century under the patronage of San Martín de Montes, it is already documented at the Council of Irago in the year 946; in 1203 it took the patronage of San Juan, adding the name Montealegre, its parish. Its bell-gable was raised in the 16th century. After the Mendizábal Desamortización it fell into decline, and today only its Romanesque ruins remain, with three semicircular apses and remains of geometric mural paintings. Declared Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) on 28 October 1993, it is the only protection of that rank in a municipality of very scattered hamlets.
Mountain range of Gistredo desde Villagatón
Nature
The district climbs from the 850 metres of the Silva stream to the 1,400 of the Sierra de Gistredo, with summits such as Alto Manzarnoso, 1,336 metres high. Its common woodlands are rich in pine and in mushrooms such as Boletus edulis.
The leaning church of Villagatón
Monument
The village church has the peculiarity of leaning: what is out of true is not the bellcote, as it seems at first sight, but the tower itself. Restored a few years ago, it holds a very ancient baptismal font.
Founding of Villagatón by Count Gatón
Historical milestone
Gatón, count of El Bierzo and brother of King Ordoño I of Asturias, extended towards Astorga in the mid-9th century the resettlement he had already led in El Bierzo and created, among other settlements, the one that bears his name and still keeps its calle del Palacio.