Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Peñafiel

What to see and do in Peñafiel (Campo de Peñafiel, Valladolid): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Activities · 2 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Peñafiel

Towns near Peñafiel

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What to see in Langayo 7 km · 3 places
What to see in Fompedraza 7.1 km · 3 places
What to see in Olmos de Peñafiel 7.3 km · 3 places
What to see in Torre de Peñafiel 7.4 km · 2 places

Spain › Castile and León › Valladolid › Campo de Peñafiel › Peñafiel

What to see and do in Peñafiel

Peñafiel
Village
Peñafiel is a town of 5143 inhabitants, head of its comarca, whose municipal area also includes the localities of Aldeayuso, Mélida and Padilla de Duero. Resettled in the year 912 and reconquered in 1013, it rises at the foot of the hill crowned by its castle. In the early 10th century, under the name Penna Fidele, it was a stronghold of the County of Monzón facing Al-Andalus, and under Sancho García it became a frontier castle in a privileged position. Its great lord was don Juan Manuel (1282-1348), nephew of Alfonso X the Wise, who chose it as his favourite place among all his estates. Incorporated into the Crown of Castile in 1367, it was granted in 1448 to Pedro Girón. In 1927, eleven wine growers founded here the first cooperative of the Ribera del Duero, the origin of Protos.
The Plaza del Coso
Monument
An urban square in Peñafiel, known as the Corro or Corro de los Toros, documented as the site of bullfights since 1433, in the heart of the Middle Ages. Rectangular, about 3,500 square metres, it is enclosed by 48 timber-framed buildings with wooden lintelled balconies, decorated with arabesque motifs and built between the 18th and 19th centuries, which have been climbed since their origin to watch the events in the square. Before bullfights it hosted medieval jousts and tournaments; today it serves as a bullring during the fiestas de San Roque, in August, and as the setting for the Bajada del Ángel (Descent of the Angel) on Easter Sunday. Since it is not presided over by a town hall or a church, it is considered more a palenque than a true main square, although it is credited with being one of the first of its kind in Spain for its singularity.
Convent of San Pablo de Peñafiel
Monument
The convent of San Pablo stands on the remains of the old Alcázar of Alfonso X, in Peñafiel (Valladolid), a town that came to have eighteen parishes in its age of splendour. It dates from the 13th century and became a monastery in the 14th, with a Gothic-Mudéjar design featuring brick arcading at the chancel, the best surviving example of brick Mudéjar work in the town. Of the old Alcázar the site itself survives, along with the base of a tower that today supports the two-tiered stone bell-gable, and the parade ground, converted into the convent's cloister. Beside the high altar are kept, in a stone urn, the remains of Prince don Juan Manuel, author of El Conde Lucanor, alongside another wooden urn holding the remains of Juana de Aza, mother of Santo Domingo de Guzmán.
The Clock Tower of Peñafiel
Monument
It began as the bell tower of the Romanesque church of San Esteban, built in 1086 and collapsed in 1613 according to the fabric records of Santa María de Mediavilla. A mechanical clock is already documented in the tower in 1532; the present mechanism dates from 1884 and came from the French workshops of Prost Frères, installed by the Valladolid clockmaker José Martínez de Velasco. The Concejo bell that strikes the hours, also called the Reloj (clock) bell, dates from 1664 and has marked the life of the people of Peñafiel for generations. The clock ran almost without interruption until 1998, when it stopped, until it was restored in 2012 by Daniel Sanz Platero; it is still wound by hand, with a rope that lasts eight days.
The underground wine cellars of the hill
Curiosity
Beneath the castle hill more than two kilometres of galleries were dug that maintain a constant temperature of around fifteen degrees. A single one of those cellars came to hold three thousand barrels.
Pintia and the necropolis of Las Ruedas
Curiosity
At Padilla de Duero the Vaccaean city of Pintia is being excavated, inhabited from the sixth century before Christ to the third after. Declared a BIC in 1993, it has three zones: the city, the necropolis and a pottery works.
The Descent of the Angel
Activity
A re-enactment held in Peñafiel (Valladolid) every Easter Sunday in the Plaza del Coso: a child dressed as an angel is lowered on a rope to remove the black veil covering the image of the Virgin. The tradition, of medieval liturgical origin, has been documented since 1799, when the account books of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament already recorded the expenses of the ceremony; it shares its form with similar celebrations in other Spanish towns, such as Aranda de Duero, Alfarrasí or Tudela. It was declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional (Spain's highest official tourism recognition for popular festivals) on 30 June 2011.
The cooperative winery that gave rise to Protos
Historical milestone
Eleven wine growers of the villa founded that day the cooperative winery that would be the germ of the Ribera del Duero designation of origin, officially recognised in 1982 with tempranillo as its main variety.