Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Simancas

What to see and do in Simancas (Campiña del Pisuerga, Valladolid): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

How far each place is from the centre of Simancas

Church of El Salvador de Simancas 100 m

Towns near Simancas

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What to see in Ciguñuela 6.1 km · 3 places
What to see in Robladillo 7.2 km · 2 places
What to see in Villán de Tordesillas 7.9 km · 3 places
What to see in Zaratán 8.6 km · 5 places
What to see in Villanueva de Duero 8.6 km · 4 places
What to see in Viana de Cega 9 km · 1 place

Spain › Castile and León › Valladolid › Campiña del Pisuerga › Simancas

What to see and do in Simancas

Simancas
Village
Simancas is a town in the comarca of Campiña del Pisuerga, in the province of Valladolid, on the right bank of the Pisuerga river, 14 kilometres upstream from the provincial capital; it has 5533 inhabitants (INE 2025). On its outskirts stands the megalithic tomb of Los Zumacales, a Neolithic cromlech, and in Roman times it was the city of Septimanca, in Vaccean territory; over the Pisuerga stands the medieval bridge, successor to the Roman road. Occupied by Alfonso I of Asturias in 753 and conquered by Alfonso III in 883, it was destroyed by Almanzor, and in 939 the battle of Simancas was fought by its walls between Ramiro II of León and the caliph Abderramán III. In its castle, a state prison where the bishop Antonio de Acuña was garrotted to death in 1521, the Archivo General de Simancas is kept.
Church of El Salvador de Simancas
Monument
An 18th-century manuscript already praised its beautiful, magnificent marble architecture and its stone vault. It presides over the walled centre of a town declared a historic-artistic ensemble in 1980. Of Romanesque origin, of which only the 12th-century tower survives, the bulk of the building was raised in the early 16th century in late Gothic style with Renaissance influences, with a hall-church plan and three naves covered by star-ribbed vaults. It preserves an altarpiece of Santiago, a reminder of its place on the Way of Saint James, as well as La Piedad by Francisco de la Maza, a pupil of Juan de Juni, a Plateresque main altarpiece and another Renaissance one dedicated to the Resurrection. A cloister of round arches on columns with plain capitals, also from the 16th century, is attached to the church.
The Pisuerga as it flows through Simancas
Nature
The river surrounds the walled hill and is crossed by the medieval bridge that inherited the course of a Roman road. The banks preserve groves of poplar and elm and are the natural passage between the moorland and the plain.
The legend of the seven maidens
Curiosity
Tradition tells that seven girls of the place cut off a hand so as not to be handed over as tribute, and that that defiance precipitated the confrontation with the caliph. On 6 August the villa recalls it in its patronal feast.
The oath of Ramiro II
Activity
Since 1994, in mid-July, forty-one residents perform the oath of the Leonese king in a historical re-enactment that closes the festive cycle devoted to the legend of the maidens of the tribute.
The battle of Simancas
Historical milestone
The Battle of Simancas, known in Arabic sources as the Battle of Alhándega, pitted the Christian troops of Ramiro II of León, who came to support the governor of Zaragoza, Muhammad ibn Hashim, against the army of the Cordoban caliph Abd al-Rahman III in the year 939; the caliph had launched a great campaign — the gazat al-qudra, or Campaign of Supreme Power — to destroy the kingdom of León. Modern estimates of the size of the armies vary widely, from 7,000 to 30,000 men on the Umayyad side, against the few hundred knights the Christian kings usually mustered on campaign. The victory before the walls of Simancas secured the northern kingdoms' hold over the lands of the Duero and became linked in local memory to the legend of the seven maidens.