Logbook · 4 places

What to see and do in El Cabaco

What to see and do in El Cabaco (Sierra de Francia, Salamanca): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Nature

Towns near El Cabaco

Spain › Castile and León › Salamanca › Sierra de Francia › El Cabaco

What to see and do in El Cabaco

El Cabaco
Village
El Cabaco is a village of the Salmantine Sierra de Francia whose district also brings together the settlements of Peña de Francia, Zarzosillo and Zarzoso, with 227 inhabitants over 47.35 km². The name, formerly written “El Cavaco”, has been linked to the Latin cavatus, “a place where excavations have been made”, an origin it shares with Las Cavenes, large ditches tied to old open-air Roman workings. The district stretches from north to south along the slope of the Sierra de Francia up to the Peña de Francia, which at 1,727 metres is its highest point. Within its district lie the Peña de Francia, with its sanctuary, declared a historic-artistic monument in 1956, and the archaeological site of Las Cavenes; the village already existed in 1215, when Alfonso IX annexed it to the town of Miranda del Castañar.
The gold mines of Las Cavenes
Monument
Declared an archaeological zone on 29 March 2006, Las Cavenes are the great trenches left by Roman open-cast gold mining; from them comes the village's own name, «place where excavations have been made».
The sanctuary of the Peña de Francia
Monument
Declared a monument on 16 March 1956, the upper and lower sanctuary, run by Dominican friars, houses the Black Virgin found by Simón Vela in 1434 and mentioned by Cervantes in Don Quixote; it is one of the highest-altitude Marian sanctuaries in the world, with replicas venerated as patron saints in Bicolandia, the Philippines, and several cities in Brazil. The complex is formed by the church, the friars' convent and the outer chapels of la Blanca, built over the cave of the discovery, San Andrés and the Santo Cristo. Practically inaccessible in winter because of the snow, from its site one can see the Campo Charro, the Sierra de Tamames and the Gabriel y Galán reservoir. Beside it stands the convent's jurisdictional pillar, protected since 14 March 1963.
The summit of the Peña de Francia
Nature
At 1,727 metres, it is one of the highest peaks in the sierra and belongs to this municipality. Its perched syncline is formed of Ordovician quartzites in which marine fossils appear, chiefly Cruziana trace fossils of trilobites and worm burrows. From its summit, occupied by the sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de la Peña de Francia, one can see the Campo Charro plain to the north, the Sierra de Tamames to the east, and the Gabriel y Galán reservoir to the south.