Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Vallecillo

What to see and do in Vallecillo (Sahagún, León): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 2 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Vallecillo

Church of San Pedro Apóstol de Vallecillo 7.4 km

Towns near Vallecillo

Spain › Castile and León › León › Sahagún › Vallecillo

What to see and do in Vallecillo

Vallecillo
Village
Vallecillo is a hamlet in the comarca of Sahagún, in the province of León, situated 55 kilometres from the provincial capital and 17 from Sahagún, next to Villeza. Its church of San Pedro Apóstol holds a 16th-century Renaissance altarpiece and rises in a tower of adobe and brick; every 30 April the maypole is planted. Its economy combines dry and irrigated farming with sheep farming, and it preserves the tradition of small vineyard plots, whose grapes are harvested every September for wine for its own consumption. Until the 20th century a mill, a forge, a tile works and a brandy distillery operated in the village. In the mid-19th century it had 208 inhabitants, against the hundred or so of today.
Church of San Pedro Apóstol de Vallecillo
Monument
Its tower, earlier than the sixteenth century, was raised with earth and stone walling and reaches some fourteen metres; the interior holds a sixteenth-century Renaissance main altar of polychrome wood with reliefs dedicated to San Pedro.
Hermitage of Nuestra Señora del Olmo
Monument
An old hermitage linked to the legend of the Virgin's apparition on some abandoned land, one of the Marian devotions that sustained the religious life of this small municipality of the comarca of Las Matas.
The Cordera of Vallecillo (Christmas play)
Curiosity
A Christmas play performed by the residents inside the church itself every 25 December; the tradition had been lost and was revived in 2005, the same year the church tower's restoration was completed.
The Mayo (May tree) of Vallecillo
Curiosity
Between 30 April and 1 May the young men cut a tree in the woodland and plant it in the village following a ritual fixed by custom, one of the mayos that survive on the León plain.
The ban on bell-ringing
Historical milestone
In the 1960s the traditional bell tolls were banned in Vallecillo, a sound language that warned of fires, deaths, council meetings and storms, and whose loss erased part of the village's communal life.