Logbook · 4 places

What to see and do in Carbonero el Mayor

What to see and do in Carbonero el Mayor (Tierra de Pinares, Segovia): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Carbonero el Mayor

Renaissance altarpiece of San Juan Bautista 50 m

Towns near Carbonero el Mayor

Spain › Castile and León › Segovia › Tierra de Pinares › Carbonero el Mayor

What to see and do in Carbonero el Mayor

Carbonero el Mayor
Village
Carbonero el Mayor is a municipality of around 2,460 inhabitants in the province of Segovia, whose name refers to the charcoal once produced there; documented in 1247 as Carbonero de Liedos, it took on the qualifier "el Mayor" (the greater) to distinguish it from the neighbouring hamlet of Carbonero de Ahusín. Its origins date back to the 13th century, perhaps linked to the resettlement following the conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI in 1085; it was part of the Sexmo de Cabezas of the Community of City and Land of Segovia, and by 1751 it already had 1,182 inhabitants, according to the Marquis of la Ensenada. It preserves the church of San Juan Bautista, which conceals beneath its Gothic fabric a Romanesque brick tower; it keeps up pottery-making and Segovian point embroidery, and a local company saved the Mangalica pig breed from extinction.
Renaissance altarpiece of San Juan Bautista
Monument
The church of San Juan Bautista, whose oldest remains date from the 13th century, was transformed in the Gothic taste in the late 15th century and reformed again between 1731 and 1736 in the Baroque style, work in which the main altarpiece was moved to the new chancel and the order of its panels was altered. The altarpiece, begun in 1547 and considered one of the outstanding works of the Renaissance in Castile, unites the Flemish and Italian heritage in twenty-one panels arranged over five vertical sections, a predella, three tiers and an attic: the four evangelists on the predella, scenes of Saint John the Baptist and the life of Jesus in the central section, and saints, martyrs and archangels in the rest.
Palace of el Sello
Monument
The Palacio del Sello is located in Carbonero el Mayor, in the Segovian Tierra de Pinares, and once belonged to the Sello lineage, from which it takes its name. Built during the town's economic boom in the late 15th century, it blends Isabelline Gothic with early Renaissance elements, with flattened arches and ball corbels typical of the age of the Catholic Monarchs. The surviving notarial records mention Luis del Sello Bermúdez y Contreras, who in 1546 marked out the estate in his name, and his son Antonio, who made his will and died in the palace in 1613, after which it passed to the marquisate of Bendaña. At the end of the Civil War it was occupied by the Missionary Nuns of Parish Action, who turned it into a residence, a use it retains today as a home for the elderly.
Ham, chorizo and pastries of Carbonero
Food and drink
The town is renowned throughout the comarca for its hams and chorizos and for a traditional confectionery tied to the festivities; the village also keeps workshops of pottery, embroidery and the making of dulzainas.