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What to see and do in Martín Muñoz de las Posadas

What to see and do in Martín Muñoz de las Posadas (Comunidad de Ciudad y Tierra de Segovia, Segovia): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Martín Muñoz de las Posadas

Palace of el cardenal Espinosa 50 m

Towns near Martín Muñoz de las Posadas

Spain › Castile and León › Segovia › Comunidad de Ciudad y Tierra de Segovia › Martín Muñoz de las Posadas

What to see and do in Martín Muñoz de las Posadas

Martín Muñoz de las Posadas
Village
Martín Muñoz de las Posadas is a town of about 251 inhabitants in the Campiña Segoviana, at 892 metres altitude, founded in the 11th century by the Burgos-born knight Martín Muñoz on lands given him as dowry by his wife Ximena Bezudo. It belonged to the sexmo de las Posaderas, from which it took its name, after the inns (posadas) that muleteers and carters found here. Here, during the Revolución Comunera, the Capítulos de Martín Muñoz de las Posadas were drafted, a draft of the 1520 Ley Perpetua. In the 16th century it grew rich thanks to Cardinal Diego de Espinosa, who, in exchange for the marquisate offered by Philip II, preferred to ask him for a free fair instead. It has two monuments of cultural interest: the church of la Asunción, with a Calvary by El Greco and the cardinal's mausoleum by Pompeo Leoni, and its palace, from 1569.
Palace of el cardenal Espinosa
Monument
Philip II held Cardinal Diego de Espinosa, bishop of Sigüenza, in such high esteem that in 1569 he wanted to buy him a house along with the title of marquis; the cardinal refused, asking instead for a free trade fair for the town, and accepted only a modest palace with the royal coat of arms on the façade, so that it would be on record that it was built by order of the king. It was designed by the architect Juan Bautista de Toledo, also the author of the Habsburg palaces, and on his death Gaspar de Vega completed the works in 1572. Rectangular in plan, with a courtyard of Tuscan and Ionic columns, it is notable for its granite doorway with fluted columns and a balcony topped by a pediment bearing the royal arms. It belonged to the Mata family until 1931 and today houses a secondary school; it is declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), as is the neighbouring parish church.
El Greco's Calvary
Curiosity
The church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción preserves a Calvary by Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco, which makes this village of the countryside one of the thirty or so places in Spain that guard a work by the Cretan.
Cardinal Diego de Espinosa
Historical milestone
Diego de Espinosa Arévalo was born in Martín Muñoz de las Posadas in 1513, into a noble and well-off family, and studied Law in Salamanca. After holding numerous posts in the royal administration, he became president of the Consejo de Castilla in 1565 and Inquisitor General in 1566, and the following year, with Philip II absent to attend to Flanders, he remained as regent and the king secured him the cardinal's hat, granted by Pope Pius V in 1568. Philip II wanted to buy him a lordship along with the title of marquis, but he refused it; he asked instead for his town a weekly free trade fair and another annual one in September. He also refused to let the king build him a palace, feeling it unbecoming of an exemplary minister, and accepted only a modest one with the royal coat of arms on the façade, completed in 1572, the year of his death.