Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Aguilafuente

What to see and do in Aguilafuente (Tierra de Pinares, Segovia): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

Towns near Aguilafuente

Spain › Castile and León › Segovia › Tierra de Pinares › Aguilafuente

What to see and do in Aguilafuente

Aguilafuente
Village
Aguilafuente is a town of about 564 inhabitants in the Tierra de Pinares district, in the centre of the province of Segovia, at an altitude of 887 metres, between the Sistema Central mountains and the Duero river valley. Its name, documented as early as 1124 as Bavilafunt, would not mean "the eagle's fountain" but "Bagvila's fountain", after a Visigothic personal name, and it was not until around the 15th century that it became Aguilafuente. In its sandy-soiled municipal area, saffron milk-cap mushrooms are gathered in autumn, and a colony of storks nests on the towers of the town centre. In 1472 a synod was held there whose proceedings, the Sinodal de Aguilafuente, were the first book printed in Spanish. The town also preserves the Roman site of Santa Lucía and the church of Santa María, with a Romanesque-Mudéjar apse.
The Sinodal de Aguilafuente
Historical milestone
The Sinodal de Aguilafuente is the first book printed in Spain and in Spanish, in 1472. It records the proceedings of the diocesan synod held that year in Aguilafuente, convened by Bishop Juan Arias Dávila to reform the diocese's ecclesial life. It was printed in Segovia by Juan Parix de Heidelberg, a German printer whom the bishop himself, a bibliophile, had brought to the city. It is a 48-leaf volume with no title page. Its only surviving copy is kept in Segovia cathedral, together with the Codex canonum that served as its original. Although Diego de Colmenares mentioned it in 1637, it was not until 1930, when the canon Cristino Valverde described the copy, that it was recognised as the first book printed in Spain, ahead of the Valencian Obres e trobes of 1474.
Church of Santa María de Aguilafuente
Monument
The synod of 1472 was held in this church. It preserves a Romanesque-Mudéjar brick apse and a 15th-century Gothic porch, on whose tympanum a relief of the Annunciation was carved. Located on the main square of Aguilafuente, it has been the municipality's only parish since the church of San Juan was closed to worship in 1842. Built in the 12th century in Mudéjar style, of which it retains the central apse and the tower, it was transformed by successive alterations that added the Gothic of the doorways and the Baroque of the interior. The 1472 diocesan synod, convened by the bishop of Segovia Juan Arias Dávila, gave rise to the Sinodal de Aguilafuente, considered the first book printed in Spain.
The Roman villa of Santa Lucía
Nature
The Roman remains found in the spot of Santa Lucía, on the road to Sauquillo de Cabezas, are exhibited today in the museum installed in the church of San Juan, alongside Visigothic materials that appeared in the built-up area itself.
Festival of el Sinodal
Activity
On the first weekend of August the village re-enacts the synod of 1472 with locals dressed in period costume, medieval trades and a market; it is the celebration that has turned a milestone in the history of the book into a popular festival.