Logbook · 3 places

What to see and do in Topas

What to see and do in Topas (La Armuña, Salamanca): 3 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Curiosities

How far each place is from the centre of Topas

The castle of Buen Amor 3.1 km

Towns near Topas

Spain › Castile and León › Salamanca › La Armuña › Topas

What to see and do in Topas

Topas
Village
Topas is a municipality in the province of Salamanca, in the La Armuña comarca, set on a plateau of the Northern Meseta 26 kilometres from the capital, crossed by streams of the Tormes basin; it divides its 518 inhabitants among about ten settlements spread over 112 square kilometres. It lives from an agriculture marked by climatic contrast, with sugar beet and market-garden produce in wet winters and rain-fed wheat, barley and rye in dry summers. Recorded as early as 1178 as Thopes, it was reconquered by the kings of León after the fall of Ledesma, Juzbado, Guadramiro and Salamanca to Ramiro II, and handed over in 1136 to the bishopric of Salamanca. Its territory contains Buen Amor castle, now a hotel, and, since 1995, the penitentiary that gives the locality its name.
The castle of Buen Amor
Monument
Situated in the area of Villanueva de Cañedo, a locality now vanished within the municipality of Topas, this Renaissance castle was built in the 15th century on the initiative of the House of Alba over the remains of an 11th-century fortress, of which the cellar survives. In 1475 the locality and its castle passed to the Catholic Monarchs, and it went on to host Ferdinand the Catholic on his way to the Battle of Toro against the supporters of Juana la Beltraneja. In 1477 it became the property of the Bishop of Ávila, Alonso Ulloa de Fonseca Quijada, who turned it into a palace and residence together with his mistress Teresa de las Cuevas; his constancy in love gave the castle its name, Buen Amor. Declared a historic-artistic monument in 1931, it now operates as a hotel.
The bishop who gave the castle its name
Curiosity
Alonso Ulloa de Fonseca Quijada, bishop of Ávila, received the fortress in 1477, turned it into a Renaissance palace and lived in it with his lover Teresa de las Cuevas; the constancy of that love earned the building the name of castle of Buen Amor.