Logbook · 10 places

What to see and do in Villoruela

What to see and do in Villoruela (Las Villas, Salamanca): 10 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 2 Nature · 2 Curiosities · 2 Historical milestones

Towns near Villoruela

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What to see in Moríñigo 4.6 km · 5 places
What to see in Cordovilla 6.4 km · 7 places
What to see in Cantalpino 7.5 km · 3 places
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What to see in El Pedroso de la Armuña 8 km · 3 places

Spain › Castile and León › Salamanca › Las Villas › Villoruela

What to see and do in Villoruela

Villoruela
Village
Villoruela is a village in the province of Salamanca, in the comarca of Las Villas, documented as early as 2 March 1201 as Villoriola, a name that varied throughout the Middle Ages until it settled as Villoruela in 1293; it owes its name to having been the smaller one compared with neighbouring Villoria. It was founded by the kings of León and granted in 1184 by Ferdinand II to the Order of Santiago. An old local tradition held it to be the birthplace of Philip II, although a recent study has shown that the king was born in Valladolid, and that the document found in the parish was only the confirmation, the following day, of a birth that had already taken place. With about 763 inhabitants, it is a wicker village, whose traditional basket-weaving is kept alive today by a handful of family businesses.
The monastery of Santa María la Alta
Monument
An enclosed Trinitarian convent founded in 1510 by Catalina de Anaya, it maintained uninterrupted religious life except during the Napoleonic invasion of 1808. Storm Filomena in 2021 seriously damaged its structure and forced the community to be rehoused.
The church of San Pedro Apóstol
Monument
The parish church lost its altarpiece on 18 December 1977, when it collapsed together with the apse. Some of its panels came from another altarpiece of 1555, paid for and installed by the masters Juan Huerta and Juan Montejo.
The wicker interpretation centre
Monument
Installed in the old houses of the master basket makers, it explains with panels and audiovisuals the whole artisanal process of wickerwork and brings together baskets, furniture and a collection of miniatures; in the yard there remain old machines and a small plantation.
The wicker basketry of Villoruela
Curiosity
Wickerwork came to occupy half the village's working population and the wicker of the floodplain was not enough: it was brought by lorry from Cuenca. Today barely twenty hectares are cultivated in the whole area of Las Villas and a few family workshops hold out.
The record that proved nothing
Curiosity
The first baptism book records that on 22 May 1527 the son of Emperor Carlos was born, and from that arose the belief that Felipe II was from Villoruela; study of the text showed that the priest was noting the following day a piece of news that had arrived from Valladolid.
The vow to the Cristo de la Esperanza
Historical milestone
After the great hailstorms of 29 May 1799, and fearing for the harvests, the residents carried the Cristo de la Esperanza in procession for the first time; since then the village has kept that day as a votive festival.
The donation to the Order of Santiago
Historical milestone
Fernando II of León donated the settlement to the Order of Santiago in 1184. Documented as Villoriola on 2 March 1201, the town then appears in forms as varied as Vilerola, Vileyrola or Villeriola before the present name was fixed in 1293.
The willow groves of la vega
Nature
The willow beds planted in the damp floodplains of the Tormes provided the comarca with raw material for generations; they are cut in the winter cold and their rods, boiled and peeled, were woven in the village workshops.
The Roman villa of the school
Nature
In 1980, near the settlement's state school, the remains of a Roman villa were rediscovered from which mosaics, coins and ceramics emerged, proof of the ancient settlement of these Tormes floodplains long before the Leonese resettlement.