Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Membribe de la Sierra

What to see and do in Membribe de la Sierra (Guijuelo, Salamanca): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Curiosities

Towns near Membribe de la Sierra

Spain › Castile and León › Salamanca › Guijuelo › Membribe de la Sierra

What to see and do in Membribe de la Sierra

Membribe de la Sierra
Village
Membribe de la Sierra is a Salamancan municipality of 101 inhabitants spread across several places —Coquilla, now depopulated, Garriel, Membribe, Navagallega and Segovia del Doctor—, in the comarca of Guijuelo. It was formerly called Benvibre, a name that would recall its medieval resettlement by people from the town of Bembibre in El Bierzo; Navagallega, then a separate municipality, was annexed to it around 1850. Next to this latter settlement, on the Peñas de Santa Cruz, stands the castle of Santa Cruz, a fortress that King Ramiro II of León built in the 10th century as part of the defensive network of the León kingdom and which is preserved today in ruins. Part of the Las Dueñas wind farm operates within its territory, and it also preserves the old church of San Román.
The castle of Santa Cruz
Monument
The castle of Santa Cruz, or of Navagallega, is a medieval fortification near Navagallega, in the Salamancan municipality of Membribe de la Sierra, listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection). It is regarded as an early medieval castle built over an earlier Roman fortification; together with the nearby Peña del Rey, it formed a defensive complex rebuilt in the early 10th century by order of Ramiro II of León, on this frontier of the Tormes. Rectangular in plan, it stands on the rock of the Peñas de Santa Cruz, in the Sierra Menor; its walls are of rubblework and lime, with remains of granite ashlar on the north and east faces, and at its western end it preserves the remains of the access tower. Now in ruins, it is on the Red List of Endangered Heritage after part of its features were looted.
The church of Nuestra Señora de las Nieves
Monument
In the settlement of Navagallega this church of late Romanesque origin is preserved in good condition, one of the few medieval remains still standing in a municipality whose other churches have fared worse.
Benvibre, the name brought from El Bierzo
Curiosity
In medieval documents the village appears as Benvibre, within the quarter of Corvacera of the Salamanca jurisdiction; the place name reveals that it was resettled with people from the Bierzo settlement of Bembibre.
The five villages of Membribe
Nature
Coquilla, Garriel, Membribe, Navagallega and Segovia del Doctor share little more than a hundred inhabitants across 46.53 square kilometres of mountains; on their heights part of the Las Dueñas wind farm turns, with 31.46 megawatts installed.