Logbook · 9 places

What to see and do in Cuéllar

What to see and do in Cuéllar (Tierra de Pinares, Segovia): 9 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 4 Monuments · 2 Activities · 2 Curiosities

How far each place is from the centre of Cuéllar

Mudéjar church of San Esteban 150 m
Shrine of Nuestra Señora de El Henar 5.6 km

Towns near Cuéllar

What to see in San Cristóbal de Cuéllar 7.6 km · 1 place
What to see in Viloria 7.6 km · 1 place
What to see in Sanchonuño 8.7 km · 1 place
What to see in Torrescárcela 9.3 km · 3 places
What to see in Bahabón 9.3 km · 2 places
What to see in Vallelado 9.4 km · 4 places
What to see in Frumales 11 km · 19 places
What to see in Chañe 12 km · 23 places

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

What to see and do in Cuéllar

Cuéllar
Village
Cuéllar is a town of around 9,500 inhabitants located in the northwest of the province of Segovia, halfway between Segovia and Valladolid, in the natural district of Tierra de Pinares and on a plain crossed from east to west by the Cega river. Head town of the Community of Town and Land of Cuéllar, it was declared a historic site for its character as a medieval town: it preserves a castle, a triple walled enclosure among the best-preserved in Castile and León and the largest ensemble of Mudéjar architecture in the region, with brick churches such as San Andrés and San Esteban, as well as monasteries and other historic buildings. Its bull-running festivities, dating back to the 13th century, are declared of International Tourist Interest and are considered the oldest in Spain.
Castle of los duques de Alburquerque
Monument
Castle-palace of the Dukes of Alburquerque, declared a Monumento Nacional (Spain's heritage designation in force until 1931) in 1931, in which the Gothic design of the fortress coexists with a Renaissance gallery opened onto the courtyard, testimony to its conversion into a seigneurial residence.
Walls of Cuéllar
Monument
The walls of Cuéllar are a Romanesque-era military enclosure surrounding the old town of Cuéllar (Segovia), one of the most important walled complexes in Castile and León. They consist of three enclosures -town, citadel and counter-wall- plus the remains of a lost fourth, built from the 11th century and reinforced in the 15th by Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, Duke of Alburquerque and lord of the town. Of the more than 2,000 original metres, about 1,400 survive, one and a half metres thick; seven of the eleven gates remain, including the Mudéjar arch of San Basilio. Having lost its function after the 17th century, it suffered demolitions in the 19th, and the last restoration, in 2011, turned it into a tourist attraction. It was declared a national monument, today a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), in 1931.
Mudéjar church of San Esteban
Monument
A 12th-century church, although the first documented mention dates from 1247, built outside the walls of Cuéllar's old citadel and formerly the seat of the Confraternity of the Cross of the Hijosdalgo Knights. Its brick apse, with superimposed blind arcading, is considered one of the finest pieces of Castilian Mudéjar; its crypt and its sebka-panel decoration sum up the town's way of building. It has three naves and five bays, with a square masonry tower on the north side. On the main altarpiece, neoclassical with rococo ornamentation, the image of Saint Stephen presides between Saint Lawrence and San Geroncio, with the popular Christ Child of the Ball in the lower niche; beside the entrance the panel altarpiece of Saint Lucy is preserved, dated 1546.
Shrine of Nuestra Señora de El Henar
Monument
Five kilometres from the town, the church was built between 1642 and 1644 with a Latin-cross plan and a neoclassical character; the camarín and the adjoining convent were added in the 18th century, and the complex was completed between 1799 and 1808. It stands in the Tierra de Pinares, among poplars and meadows, actually closer to the Valladolid village of Viloria del Henar than to Cuéllar itself, right on the boundary between the two provinces. In the Middle Ages there was a settlement here called Santa María del Henar, whose hermitage was already in ruins by the 16th century. A 12th-century Romanesque carving in walnut wood presides over the high altar, known as La Morenita for the dark tone of its face, patron since 1958 of Spain's resin tappers.
The largest Mudéjar ensemble in Spain
Curiosity
Cuéllar brings together the greatest concentration of Mudéjar architecture in the country: San Andrés and El Salvador of the thirteenth century, San Esteban and San Martín of the twelfth, all raised in brick by master builders who worked here for generations.
La Morenita, patron saint of resin tappers
Curiosity
The twelfth-century Romanesque carving venerated at El Henar, known as la Morenita for its dark face of Byzantine features, was proclaimed by Pius XII in 1958 patroness of the Spanish resin workers and canonically crowned in 1972.
The bull runs (encierros) documented since 1215
Activity
The first known mention of the encierros of Cuéllar is from 1215, in a prohibition addressed to the clergy so that they would not take part in them; that document makes them the oldest documented encierros in Spain.
Bull runs of international tourist interest
Activity
The encierros are run on the last weekend of August through the countryside and the streets of the town. They were declared a festival of national tourist interest in 1977 and obtained the international category in 2018.