Logbook · 9 places

What to see and do in Saldaña

What to see and do in Saldaña (Vega-Valdavia, Palencia): 9 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

Towns near Saldaña

Spain › Castile and León › Palencia › Vega-Valdavia › Saldaña

What to see and do in Saldaña

Saldaña
Village
Saldaña is the capital of the comarca of Vega-Valdavia, in the province of Palencia, situated on the banks of the Carrión river, with about 2,850 inhabitants. It was the head of the county of Saldaña-Carrión, whose counts, vassals of the Kingdom of León in the 10th century, belonged according to Arab sources to the Beni Gómez family; popular tradition links the town to the legend of Bernardo del Carpio, son of Count Sancho Díaz de Saldaña. Queen Urraca I of León died there in 1126, and in 1128 Alfonso VII and Berenguela of Barcelona married in the town, an occasion marked by the first documented bullfight. A lordship of the Marquis of Santillana, Saldaña preserves a Plaza Vieja with wooden arcades and gives its name to the renowned Saldaña bean, grown in its fertile vega.
Old Square of Saldaña
Monument
An arcaded square of post-and-beam structure, with wooden galleries resting on stone columns, which preserves the layout of the medieval market and is the heart of the town's historic quarter.
Castle of los Duques del Infantado
Monument
A medieval fortress, today in ruins, that dominates the floodplain of the Carrión from the hill above the town; it belonged to the house of the Marquis of Santillana, when Saldaña was the head of more than a hundred places.
Church of San Miguel de Saldaña
Monument
The parish church of Saldaña, documented since at least 1362, is one of the leading religious buildings of the Carrión valley and the usual starting point for the walk through the old town of what was once the head of a merindad. It stands on a plan of three naves separated by cylindrical pillars, the upper part of which ends in a moulding decorated with balls and rope-like carving, a motif repeated at the springing of the arches and on the corbels from which the vault ribs spring. In contrast with its sturdy exterior, the interior holds pieces from the 16th and 17th centuries.
Hermitage of Nuestra Señora del Valle
Monument
An eighteenth-century sanctuary built on the outskirts of the town and dedicated to the patron saint of the comarca; it is the goal of a pilgrimage festival and one of the busiest devotional centres in the whole Vega del Carrión.
The Crooked House
Curiosity
A dwelling from the end of the sixteenth century that owes its popular name to the visible lean of its timber-frame structure; it has become one of the most photographed images of the old quarter of Saldaña.
Museum of la Villa Romana en San Pedro
Monument
Since 1984 the church of San Pedro in Saldaña has housed the movable materials recovered at La Olmeda: ceramics, glass, coins and grave goods that complete the visit to the site at Pedrosa de la Vega.
Death of Queen Urraca I in Saldaña
Historical milestone
Queen Urraca I of León, the first woman to reign in her own right on the peninsula, died in Saldaña in 1126; the town was then one of the kingdom's strongholds in the Carrión floodplain.
Bean of Saldaña and Santa Úrsula Fair
Food and drink
The white bean grown in the floodplains of the Carrión is the town's flagship product and has its showcase in the Feria de Santa Úrsula, which every October brings together producers from across the comarca.