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What to see and do in Espinosa de Villagonzalo

What to see and do in Espinosa de Villagonzalo (La Ojeda, Palencia): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

Towns near Espinosa de Villagonzalo

Spain › Castile and León › Palencia › La Ojeda › Espinosa de Villagonzalo

What to see and do in Espinosa de Villagonzalo

Espinosa de Villagonzalo
Village
Espinosa de Villagonzalo is a municipality in the La Ojeda area, in Palencia province, with about 165 inhabitants at 847 metres above sea level, against the 416 it had in the mid-19th century. At the end of the 11th century the territory was split into three settlements, Spinosa, with the church of Santa Cecilia, and the deserted villages of Villa Gonzalo and Castrogonzalo; around 1200, when Espinosa was already the only inhabited place, Alfonso VIII gave the town to the Order of St John of Jerusalem. Its Gothic church of Santa Cecilia, of rubblework, ashlar and brick, is arranged in three naves with barrel and groin vaults, with a Gothic entrance with an ogee arch and a stone sculpture of the Virgin. Inside it preserves altarpieces from the 16th to the 18th century and, in the choir, rococo stalls and a baroque organ.
Church of Santa Cecilia de Espinosa
Monument
A church of three naves covered with barrel vaults and a Gothic doorway with an ogee arch, which holds altarpieces from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries and a sacristy chest of drawers dated 1767; in the square stands a fifteenth-century Gothic cross.
Romanesque frieze of Espinosa in the Marès Museum
Curiosity
A Romanesque frieze that was embedded in the village cemetery ended up sold and is today displayed in the Frederic Marès Museum in Barcelona, one of so many plunderings of rural heritage in Palencia.
Donation of Espinosa to the Order of Saint John
Historical milestone
Alfonso VIII handed Espinosa over to the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem at the end of the twelfth century, when it was the only one of the three hamlets in the area —along with Villa Gonzalo and Castrogonzalo— that was still inhabited.