Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Fonfría

What to see and do in Fonfría (Aliste, Zamora): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

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Spain › Castile and León › Zamora › Aliste › Fonfría

What to see and do in Fonfría

Fonfría
Village
Fonfría is a municipality in Zamora province with 794 inhabitants that brings together nine villages next to the border with Portugal, in the comarca of Aliste: besides Fonfría, the hamlets of Arcillera, Bermillo de Alba, Brandilanes, Castro de Alcañices, Ceadea, Fornillos, Moveros and Salto de Castro. Its name, from the Latin fons, “spring”, means “cold spring”, after an old fountain now covered by the N-122 road. To the north lies the Poblado that Iberduero built to house the workers who constructed the Salto de Castro. Part of its territory, between the Aliste and Duero rivers, is protected as the Meseta Ibérica biosphere reserve and as the Arribes del Duero natural park, a refuge for birds such as the griffon vulture, the black stork and the golden eagle.
The silverwork of Pedro Bello
Monument
The parish church of Santa María Magdalena, rebuilt in 1971 in stone, preserves a processional cross and a monstrance wrought in the eighteenth century by the silversmith Pedro Bello, as well as three large stained-glass windows.
The settlement of the Salto de Castro
Curiosity
The village of Salto de Castro was built by Iberduero (today Iberdrola) next to the Castro dam, in south-western Zamora province, within the municipality of Fonfría (Aliste) and the Arribes del Duero natural park, to house the families of the workers who maintained the dam, which was built between 1946 and 1952. Opened in 1957, it was left uninhabited in 1989 when its staff were relocated and the Guardia Civil barracks closed. It had 44 dwellings, a church, a guest house, a bar, a swimming pool, sports facilities, a school and a garage for the regional bus; today it has no inhabitants on the census and is one of the most frequently cited abandoned villages along the Zamora border. Sold in 2022 and again in 2025, its latest buyers plan to turn it into a rural tourism and coworking complex.
The birds of prey of the Arribes de Fonfría
Nature
The municipal district, within the natural park of Arribes del Duero and the Natura 2000 Network, hosts vultures, black stork, peregrine falcon, Egyptian vulture, red-billed chough, eagle owl and golden and Bonelli's eagles.
The eight villages of Fonfría
Historical milestone
Around 1850 the municipality absorbed Bermillo de Alba, Brandilanes and Castro de Alcañices, and in 1973 it annexed the district of Ceadea; today its 794 residents are shared out among eight inhabited settlements of the border.