Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Alaejos

What to see and do in Alaejos (Tierra de Medina, Valladolid): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 2 Activities

How far each place is from the centre of Alaejos

Church of San Pedro de Alaejos 100 m
Church of Santa María de Alaejos 350 m

Towns near Alaejos

Spain › Castile and León › Valladolid › Tierra de Medina › Alaejos

What to see and do in Alaejos

Alaejos
Village
Alaejos is a town in the province of Valladolid, in the Tierra del Vino, with 1,427 inhabitants, on flat land watered by streams that are tributaries of the Trabancos; it is also the antipode of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. In the 11th century it was part of the kingdom of León, with a parish of the diocese of Salamanca, and is thought to have arisen as a hamlet on the defensive line between León and Castile on the river Trabancos. Documented in 1180 as Falafeios, the name of the Mozarab owner Jalaf, it was sold in the mid-14th century to Medina del Campo, and until the 19th century was a lordship of the bishop of Ávila Alfonso de Fonseca. Its church of San Pedro, a 16th-century historic-artistic monument, is built of brick with plasterwork and Mudéjar tiles, with a four-tier tower and a walnut choir with twenty-nine seats.
Church of Santa María de Alaejos
Monument
A 16th-century Renaissance church whose brick tower reaches 64 metres and can be seen from across the surrounding countryside. Built in brick with lime and gypsum mortar, it combines Renaissance, Mudéjar and Baroque elements: it has three naves with ribbed vaults decorated in gold and polychromy by Francisco Martínez, and two Mudéjar timber roofs cover the transept and the main chapel. The tower, from the 18th century, is topped by a body resembling a minaret. It preserves a plateresque choir carved in wood and, in the main altarpiece dedicated to the Assumption, the design of Esteban Jordán. Declared a national Monumento Histórico-Artístico (a heritage-protection category that preceded today's BIC designation) in 1931, it today houses the inter-parish museum of sacred art, with metalwork, sculptures and paintings, including two canvases by Luca Giordano.
Church of San Pedro de Alaejos
Monument
The church of San Pedro de Alaejos is a building from the third quarter of the 16th century, straddling the Gothic and Renaissance styles, raised with Mudéjar decorative elements; notable are its slender tower, a Baroque work from the late 17th century, and a wrought-iron Castilian balcony opening onto the square for public events. It preserves an altarpiece by Juan Sáez de la Torrecilla and a Baroque organ still in its original case. Its file for declaration as a monument was opened in 1981, and received a favourable report from the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in 1984 and from the University of Valladolid in 1996.
The ethnographic collection of the castle
Activity
Beside the ruins of the fortress, on the way out towards Salamanca, a collection of more than a thousand pieces of vanished trades and utensils of the comarca's daily life is displayed.
The confinement of Queen Juana of Portugal
Activity
The wife of Enrique IV was confined in the castle of the villa under the custody of Archbishop Alonso de Fonseca, in one of the most talked-about episodes of the Castilian court before the war of succession.