Logbook · 3 places

What to see and do in Alfaraz de Sayago

What to see and do in Alfaraz de Sayago (Sayago, Zamora): 3 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Activities

How far each place is from the centre of Alfaraz de Sayago

The castle of Asmesnal 5.4 km

Towns near Alfaraz de Sayago

Spain › Castile and León › Zamora › Sayago › Alfaraz de Sayago

What to see and do in Alfaraz de Sayago

Alfaraz de Sayago
Village
Alfaraz de Sayago is a village of 120 inhabitants in the comarca of Sayago, in the south of Zamora province, bordering the Salamanca comarca of Tierra de Ledesma, amid holm-oak dehesas that give its dehesa landscape its name. The castle of El Asmesnal, built in the 12th century on the defensive line between Peñausende and Ledesma, and the Romanesque hermitage of Santa María de Torremut testify to this territory's past importance, crossed by the road that linked Zamora with Ledesma. The municipality also preserves ethnographic traditions typical of the comarca, such as the vaca vayona, part of the winter mask festivals characteristic of Zamora province. Its name, of Arabic root, may derive from alfarás, horse, or from al-harsh, the field.
The castle of Asmesnal
Monument
Built on the dehesa of the Asmesnal, whose name already appears as La Almexnal in the Fuero de Ledesma of 1161, this Gothic-style castle played an important role in the 15th-century wars with Portugal, although it probably featured in the history of the Kingdom of León from the 12th century onward. It preserves a square tower with corner bastions and an outer enclosure. It stands on the ZA-305 road, about 11 kilometres from Peñausende and 14 from Ledesma, beside the stream that gives it its name. In 1831 the dehesa was recorded as a secular village of the Sayago district, with its own presiding mayor and a population of barely 28 inhabitants engaged in cereal, pulse, wine and livestock farming. Beside it stand the remains of the Asmesnal palace and church.
The Vaca Vayona of New Year's Eve
Activity
Between 31 December and 1 January the Vaca Vayona goes through the streets, a masked character with horns and a cowbell; it is the winter masquerade of a municipality of 120 households and dehesas of holm oak and cork oak.