Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Puebla de Sanabria

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

1 Villages · 4 Monuments · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Puebla de Sanabria

Towns near Puebla de Sanabria

Spain › Castile and León › Zamora › Sanabria › Puebla de Sanabria

What to see and do in Puebla de Sanabria

Puebla de Sanabria
Village
Puebla de Sanabria, la Viella in Sanabrian, is a town in the province of Zamora, the head of the natural district of Sanabria, whose urban centre sits on a natural spur shaped by the Ferrera stream and the Tera and Castro rivers, reinforced by its position beside the border with Portugal, which made it a chartered, fortified and walled town. Alfonso IX of León raised it to the status of puebla on 1 September 1220 to create a Leonese stronghold on that border. Its medieval walled precinct, reinforced from the seventeenth century onwards, encloses the castle of the counts of Benavente, with its keep known as del Macho, and the church of Santa María del Azogue. In 1994 it was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in the category of historic ensemble. It has 1378 inhabitants.
The castle of the Counts of Benavente
Monument
Rodrigo Alonso Pimentel had it built between 1455 and 1499 on the hill overlooking the Tera, in Puebla de Sanabria; its keep, known as el Macho, and its semicircular bastions today house the town's visitor centre. In the northern section are the Governor's House Visitor Centre and the Municipal Tourist Office, with rooms devoted to the Pimentel Route and to the natural riches of Sanabria and the Sierra de la Culebra; the keep houses the Fortifications Centre, with information on the castle and other strongholds of the province of Zamora and panoramic views, and the east wing houses the Cultural Centre, with an assembly hall, municipal library and exhibition room.
The church of Santa María del Azogue
Monument
The church of Santa María del Azogue stands at the highest point of Puebla de Sanabria, next to the castle; its dedication recalls the azogue, the market once held at its foot. Of Romanesque construction from the second half of the 12th century, it retains the nave walls and two portals from that period: the southern one, beneath a porch between the tower and the transept, with three round arches, and the western one, with four pointed archivolts, columns and statues in slate-like stone. Under the atrium is kept a Romanesque granite baptismal font, tronco-conical in shape, decorated with an angel among crosses and human figures. Remodelled between the 16th and 18th centuries, it resembles churches in Galicia and northern Portugal, and was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) on 17 February 2022.
The historic quarter of Puebla de Sanabria
Monument
Declared a bien de interés cultural in 1994, the old quarter preserves the medieval layout with two clearly distinct areas: the walled town on top of the hill and the suburb descending towards the river.
The fort of San Carlos
Monument
An artillery fort built in the 17th century on a rocky outcrop south of the town centre of Puebla de Sanabria, to reinforce the town's medieval walls and watch the border with Portugal during the clashes between the two kingdoms in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Its plan is rectangular, with bastions at the corners and ravelins at the centre of each side, surrounded by a wide moat with a deep scarp and counterscarp, following the Italian-style bastioned fortification system typical of the period, although even then its small size was criticised. It served as a base of operations in the Spanish-Portuguese wars, in a stronghold that Portuguese forces went on to occupy between 1710 and 1715, next to the castle of the Counts of Benavente.
The founding charter of Alfonso IX
Historical milestone
Alfonso IX of León granted in 1220 the charter of settlement that turned the site into a villa and gave it its name; the place was already cited in the documentation of the council of Lugo of the year 509.
The giants and bigheads of las Victorias
Activity
The troupe was born in 1848 with two figures, el Chino and la Negra; every 7 September it goes through the cobbled streets announcing the main day, and on the 8th it escorts the procession of Nuestra Señora de las Victorias.
The habón beans of Sanabria
Food and drink
A large white butter bean grown only in this comarca and always above a thousand metres in altitude, it is the basis of the caldo sanabrés and of the stews that sustain the town's winter cooking.