Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Alar del Rey

What to see and do in Alar del Rey (La Ojeda, Palencia): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

Towns near Alar del Rey

Spain › Castile and León › Palencia › La Ojeda › Alar del Rey

What to see and do in Alar del Rey

Alar del Rey
Village
Alar del Rey is a town of about 910 inhabitants in the Palencia area of La Ojeda, on the foothills of the Cantabrian Mountains and equidistant from Palencia, Burgos, León and Santander. The village did not exist before 1657, when Philip IV founded the town as the central site for building the northern branch of the Canal de Castilla, of which it is the starting point; since the engineers who built it were French, its patron saint is San Luis Rey de Francia. In the mid-19th century it also became the head of one of Spain's first railway lines, that from Alar del Rey to Santander. Its dock and river port are a unique example of 18th-century industrial architecture, and since 2017 the municipality has been part of Unesco's Las Loras Geopark.
Dock of the Canal de Castilla
Monument
The Canal de Castilla is one of the most important works of hydraulic engineering built in Spain between the mid-18th century and the first third of the 19th, conceived to give Castilian wheat an outlet to the northern ports before the railway made it obsolete. Its northern branch begins at Alar del Rey, a village that did not exist before the canal and that grew up as the central hub of the works; founded in 1657 by royal will, it has as its patron San Luis Rey de Francia, in honour of the French engineers who directed the works. The canal basin at Alar del Rey, considered a unique example in Spain of 18th-century industrial architecture, is the infrastructure that gave rise to the village and its purpose; the whole has been declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) as a historic-artistic ensemble since 1991.
Church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen de Alar
Monument
Built in 1898 in Neo-Romanesque style for the neighbourhood that grew up around the canal, which until then heard mass in the buildings of the waterworks itself; its Renaissance-flavoured tower was completed in 1955.
End of the North Branch of the Canal de Castilla
Historical milestone
The North Branch of the Canal de Castilla, 75 kilometres and 24 locks between Alar del Rey and Calahorra de Ribas, was completed in August 1791; it was the first finished stretch of a work begun in 1753.
Opening of the Alar-Reinosa railway
Historical milestone
The stretch between Alar and Reinosa of the Palencia to Santander line was inaugurated on 28 March 1857 and was one of the first railway lines in service in Spain, taking over from the canal in the transport of grain.
Pisuerga riversides in Alar
Nature
Kilometre zero of the Canal de Castilla is taken from the Pisuerga at the spot known as La Veguilla; between the natural channel and the canal a corridor of poplar groves and copses forms that accompanies the traveller as far as the locks.