Logbook · 10 places

What to see and do in Pedraza

What to see and do in Pedraza (Comunidad de Villa y Tierra de Pedraza, Segovia): 10 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 4 Monuments · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities · 3 Historical milestones

Towns near Pedraza

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What to see in Gallegos 6.6 km · 4 places
What to see in La Matilla 6.9 km · 3 places
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Spain › Castile and León › Segovia › Comunidad de Villa y Tierra de Pedraza › Pedraza

What to see and do in Pedraza

Pedraza
Village
Pedraza is a walled medieval town of about 335 inhabitants, whose restoration led to its being declared a Conjunto Histórico (a Spanish heritage designation for a protected historic urban ensemble) in 1951. Located 37 kilometres north-east of Segovia, its name appears to derive from the Roman Pretaria. It was a lordship from 1369, when Henry II granted it to Fernando Gómez de Albornoz, and at the end of the 15th century it passed by marriage to the Constables of Castile, who turned it into a stopping place for nobles and monarchs. The 16th and 17th centuries brought its greatest splendour, with the construction of most of its houses and small palaces thanks to the export of merino wool. It preserves the town gate, the sole access to the walled enclosure, of medieval origin. From 7 to 12 September it celebrates the Virgen del Carrascal with a procession and a bull run.
Castle of Pedraza
Monument
A fortress raised in the thirteenth century and rebuilt in the fifteenth by García Herrera, at the end of the spur on which the town sits. It dominates the walled settlement and today houses a museum devoted to the painter who rescued it from ruin.
The sons of Francisco I, hostages in Pedraza
Historical milestone
Two sons of King Francis I of France remained shut up in the castle of Pedraza as hostages of Carlos V until 1530, an episode of the rivalry between the two monarchs that placed this mountain town in European politics.
Fernando Gómez de Albornoz, lord of Pedraza
Historical milestone
Enrique II named Fernando Gómez de Albornoz lord of Pedraza on 10 June 1369. The lordship afterwards passed to the Herreras and, by marriage, to the Constables of Castile, who governed the town for centuries.
Zuloaga rescues the castle
Curiosity
The painter Ignacio Zuloaga bought the castle in 1926 and restored it in order to install his studio there; his determination saved the fortress from ruin and tied the name of the Basque artist for ever to that of this Segovian town.
Gate of the Town
Monument
The only entrance to the walled precinct goes back to the eleventh century and was rebuilt in the sixteenth. The gaol was installed above it, so that whoever entered Pedraza passed literally beneath the cells.
Town Jail
Monument
An old watchtower turned into a prison above the entrance gate; it preserves cells, stocks and shackles that show without embellishment the methods of confinement of seigneurial justice in the Castile of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Main Square of Pedraza
Monument
An arcaded square of irregular layout, with porticoes on stone columns and wooden balconies, presided over by the Romanesque tower of San Juan Bautista; it is one of the best preserved Castilian urban spaces.
Historic site since 1951
Historical milestone
Pedraza was declared a historic-artistic site in 1951, after a restoration process that gave its houses back their coherence; in 2014 it also joined the association of the most beautiful villages in Spain.
Candlelight Concerts
Activity
At the beginning of July the town switches off its street lighting and lights itself with thousands of candles placed in streets, windows and balconies while music plays in the main square; it is the event that attracts the most visitors to the municipality.