Logbook · 10 places

What to see and do in Miño de Medinaceli

What to see and do in Miño de Medinaceli (Tierra de Medinaceli, Soria): 10 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 4 Monuments · 2 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Miño de Medinaceli

Towns near Miño de Medinaceli

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What to see in Medinaceli 7.2 km · 26 places
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What to see in Estriégana 15 km · 1 place
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Spain › Castile and León › Soria › Tierra de Medinaceli › Miño de Medinaceli

What to see and do in Miño de Medinaceli

Miño de Medinaceli
Village
Miño de Medinaceli, also called Miño de Medina and formerly Miño del Ducado, is a municipality of 73 inhabitants at 1,161 metres of altitude, in the province of Soria, which brings together the settlements of Conquezuela, Ventosa del Ducado and Ambrona. Through its territory ran the Roman road that linked Ocilis, present-day Medinaceli, with Uxama or Osma, and a royal road connected it with Mojares, in Guadalajara, as a shortcut towards Sigüenza. In the late 19th century a station of the Torralba-Soria railway was built nearby, opened in 1892, around which the Estación quarter grew, restored in 2018 as a tourist hostel. The wetlands of Conquezuela are an important stopover for migratory birds, and in mid-August the municipality goes up in procession to the hermitage of the Virgen de la Santa Cruz.
The museum of Ambrona
Monument
Opened in 1963 above the site itself, it was the first site museum of its kind in Europe: it allows visitors to see the elephant bones and flint tools exactly where they were found, without removing them from their stratum. The site was discovered in the late 19th century during works on the nearby Torralba railway station, and the excavations of the early 20th century were directed and funded by the Marquis of Cerralbo. The sites of Torralba and Ambrona, considered among the most important on the Iberian Peninsula, were declared Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in the archaeological zone category in 1995, and are also recognised as a Site of Geological Interest of international relevance by Spain's Geological and Mining Institute.
The elephants of the Ambrona valley
Historical milestone
The Middle Pleistocene Acheulean deposits in the Ambrona valley have yielded remains of nearly fifty specimens of Palaeoloxodon antiquus, along with horses, bison and deer, in what was interpreted as an elephant graveyard.
The oldest beer from the Túmulo de la Sima
Curiosity
In this Neolithic tumulus of the municipal district Bell Beaker vessels appeared whose residues were identified as remains of beer, one of the oldest testimonies of that drink in western Europe.
The church of San Miguel de Miño
Monument
A rural Romanesque church with a crenellated bell gable, a chevet of round arches and rubble masonry walls; it presides over a village that in the census of 1488 counted twenty households and today does not reach that figure in the whole municipality.
The rock-cut hermitage of Conquezuela
Monument
The hermitage of Santa Cruz stands beside a cave with an altar carved into the rock, reached by five front steps and two lateral stairways, one of the most curious rock sanctuaries in the province.
The rock shelter of la Dehesa
Nature
This rock shelter of the municipal district preserves schematic rock paintings attributed to the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, with human figures and signs that link the Ambrona valley with peninsular schematic art.
The drained lagoon of Conquezuela
Nature
This karst wetland, famous for producing quality leeches for medical bleedings, was drained in the fifties by the Instituto Nacional de Colonización to gain arable land and to combat malaria.
The castle-watchtower of Cerro Castillo
Monument
The remains of an Islamic watchtower that controlled the Ambrona corridor, in the line of watchtowers that linked Medinaceli with the Duero; beside it a necropolis of anthropomorphic graves has been documented.
The pilgrimage of Santa Cruz and the Judas
Activity
In mid-August a pilgrimage festival climbs to the hermitage of Santa Cruz, and the municipality has also revived the carnival heifer and the Fiesta del Judas at Easter, two rites that were on the point of being lost.