Logbook · 4 places

What to see and do in Venialbo

What to see and do in Venialbo (Alfoz de Toro, Zamora): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities

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Spain › Castile and León › Zamora › Alfoz de Toro › Venialbo

What to see and do in Venialbo

Venialbo
Village
Venialbo is a village in Zamora province with 439 inhabitants, whose name may derive from a hybrid of the Arabic beni, 'sons of', and the Romance albo, 'white'. It is documented on 14 April 1126, when Alfonso VII of León granted it, together with Congosto, to the monastery of Santo Tomé de Zamora, which gave the concejo a settlement charter (fuero); in 1220 it came under the chapter of Zamora cathedral, which caused tensions with the concejo of Toro throughout the 13th century. It was traditionally a lordship of the Bishopric of Zamora in ecclesiastical matters and of the Kingdom of León in civil ones. It was also an important pottery-making centre until 1980, and every 27 December, at the feast of the Christ Child, the Floreo is danced. It preserves a parish church with Romanesque remains, mostly from the 15th century.
The altarpiece by Lorenzo de Ávila
Monument
The parish church, of Romanesque origin and 15th-century construction, preserves an altarpiece documented as the work of the painter Lorenzo de Ávila (Ávila, c. 1473/1492 - Toro, 1570), traditionally considered a follower of Juan de Borgoña. Before settling in Toro in 1529, he worked in Toledo, where he is documented from 1507, and also in Ávila, Valladolid and León. In Toro he ran an active painting workshop in which other artists collaborated, such as Juan de Borgoña de Toro, Blas de Oña, Alonso de Aguilar and Luis del Castillo. He died in 1570 and was buried in the convent of San Francisco in that city, for which he had painted the main altarpiece. At one end of the town centre of Venialbo also stands the hermitage of la Vera Cruz.
The Floreo of 27 December
Activity
On 27 December, the day of the Child Jesus, the Floreo is danced in the village; among the inherited customs is also the visit of the newly-weds to the fuente del Macho on leaving the wedding.
The last potter of Venialbo
Curiosity
The village's pottery tradition died out in 1980 with the death of the last potter; the wine-cellar quarter, dug out on the edge of the built-up area, still stands as the other great inherited trade of the place.