Logbook · 11 places

What to see and do in Caltojar

What to see and do in Caltojar (Berlanga, Soria): 11 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Nature · 3 Curiosities · 3 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Caltojar

The hermitage of San Baudelio 2.8 km

Towns near Caltojar

What to see in La Riba de Escalote 6.4 km · 4 places
What to see in Velamazán 7.5 km · 3 places
What to see in Rello 8 km · 6 places
What to see in Arenillas 9.3 km · 6 places
What to see in Berlanga de Duero 11 km · 17 places
What to see in Centenera de Andaluz 12 km · 4 places
What to see in Barca 13 km · 2 places
What to see in Barcones 13 km · 6 places

Spain › Castile and León › Soria › Berlanga › Caltojar

What to see and do in Caltojar

Caltojar
Village
Caltojar is a municipality in the province of Soria, situated by the Escalote river, on the foothills of the sierras of southern Soria, already close to Guadalajara. Its name, of Arabic origin, combines calat, fortress, and thagr, frontier. It belonged to the Tierra de Berlanga until the marquisate of Caltojar was created in 1695, and much of its municipal area is protected within the Natura 2000 network of the Altos de Barahona. It now has 53 inhabitants, far fewer than the 420 recorded in the 1842 census. Its church of San Miguel Arcángel, a late Romanesque work from the first third of the 13th century with a sumptuous apse crowned by a double frieze of Lombard arcading, has been a monument since 1981; in its hamlet of Casillas de Berlanga stands the Mozarabic hermitage of San Baudelio.
The hermitage of San Baudelio
Monument
Built in the late 11th century at Casillas de Berlanga, within the municipality of Caltojar (Soria), it is arranged around a central pillar from which eight horseshoe arches spring like the leaves of a palm tree, a Mozarabic solution unique in Europe. Its mural paintings earned it the nickname Sistine Chapel of Mozarabic Art. Declared a National Monument in 1917 (a former Spanish heritage designation), in 1922 part of those paintings were sold to a dealer and stripped from the walls, ending up divided among museums such as the Prado and several US institutions; the sale, highly controversial, was declared legal by the Supreme Court in 1925. Today the hermitage is an annex of the Numantine Museum of Soria.
The paintings of the elephant and the hunts
Curiosity
The walls of San Baudelio were covered in the twelfth century with tempera paintings that mix biblical scenes with hunts, a camel and an elephant carrying a castle, secular iconography unheard of in a hermitage.
The plundering of the frescoes
Historical milestone
Twenty-three paintings were sold for 65,000 pesetas to the antiquarian Gabriel Dereppe, who resold them to North American museums; the Supreme Court declared the sale legal in 1925 and the frescoes left the country.
The frescoes scattered around the world
Curiosity
Fragments of San Baudelio hang today in the Metropolitan in New York and in the museums of Boston, Indianapolis and Cincinnati; only a part came back to Spain in 1957 and is displayed in the Museo del Prado.
The declaration as a national monument
Historical milestone
San Baudelio was declared a Monumento Nacional (Spain's heritage designation in force until 1931) in 1917, five years before its paintings were sold, a case that became the classic example of the lack of protection of Spanish rural heritage.
The gallery and the cave of the hermitage
Monument
Over the interior of San Baudelio a tribune projects supported by small horseshoe arches, and at one end opens a small cave cut into the rock that points to the building's eremitical origin.
The portal of San Miguel de Caltojar
Monument
The church of San Miguel Arcángel in Caltojar, whose construction may date from the late 12th or early 13th century, is described as transitional Romanesque in style. Its portal displays five archivolts over five pairs of columns with capitals already showing Gothic influence, and the apse is decorated with Lombard arcading. It was declared a historic-artistic monument of national character (a former Spanish heritage designation) on 10 April 1981 and today holds the status of Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection).
The watchtowers of the Escalote valley
Curiosity
Three tenth-century Muslim watchtowers are spread across the municipal district and communicated with each other and with Gormaz, forming part of the alert network that covered the whole Duero frontier.
The marquisate of Caltojar
Historical milestone
The title of Marquis of Caltojar was created on 31 July 1695 by King Charles II in favour of Manuel Antonio de Velasco Tovar y Centeno, an infantry colonel, in recognition of his father's merits, at the same time as the viscountcy of Arenillas was extinguished. It takes its name from the municipality of Caltojar, in the province of Soria, situated beside the Escalote river in the foothills of the sierras of southern Soria, close to the border with Guadalajara, whose place name, of Arabic origin (calat, 'fortress', and thagr, 'frontier'), recalls the existence of a castle. The lordship grouped together several villages of the valley in the hands of a single noble house.
The Altos de Barahona above Caltojar
Nature
The special protection area for birds occupies 2,768 hectares of the municipal district, a third of the municipality: juniper and cereal moorland where Dupont's lark, the little bustard and the Montagu's harrier breed.