Castile and Leon (Spanish: Castilla y León) is an autonomous region of Spain. The region is home to eight World Heritage Sites. Tourists are drawn to the region by the historical and cultural value of its cities and also by the natural and scenic attractiveness of its different comarcas. The World Heritage cities: Ávila, Salamanca and Segovia; the Way of St. James that passes through the provinces of Burgos, Palencia and León, and the ducal town of Lerma, are the mainstays of cultural tourism in Castile and León.
There are several ski resorts, such as La Covatilla in the Sierra de Béjar, San Isidro Leitariegos, and La Pinilla.
Castile and León has several cities whose Holy Week is considered to be of International Tourist Interest. Examples are Holy Week in León, Holy Week in Salamanca, Holy Week in Valladolid or Holy Week in Zamora.
Cities
- 1 Ávila — spectacularly ringed by ancient walls, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- 2 Bembibre —
- 3 Burgos — known for its cathedral, that forms part of its UNESCO World Heritage designation
- 4 León — it has a vast cultural, historical and architectural heritage
- 5 Medina de Pomar — a vacation destination for residents of nearby Bilbao
- 6 Medina de Rioseco —
- 7 Palencia — offers many well-conserved monuments and a picturesque main street
- 8 Salamanca — its Romanesque, Gothic, Moorish, Renaissance and Baroque monuments in the historic centre are a UNESCO world heritage site
- 9 Santa Lucía — a beautiful village in a valley
- 10 Segovia — known for its Roman aqueduct, its cathedral, and the castle, which served as one of the templates for Walt Disney's Cinderella Castle
- 11 Soria — known for its agri-food industry and cultural heritage
- 12 Valladolid — a mainly industrial city whose older core has some interesting buildings
- 13 Zamora — it the highest concentration of Romanesque art and architecture in Europe
Other destinations
The Way of St. James, a traditional pilgrimage and modern hiking route, runs through the region.
La Alberca is worth a visit. It is historical town with a population of about 1000. Only residents are allowed to have vehicles in the historical centre. In the off season, it can be a quiet, sleepy location. Besides being very beautiful, the town is known for the production of ham and other pork products.
Understand
Castile and Leon is an autonomous community of Spain, the country's largest — in fact, it is the largest subnational political division in the European Union. It is formed by the union of two ancient kingdoms: Old Castile (Ávila, Burgos, Segovia and Soria) and the Kingdom of León (León, Zamora, Salamanca, Palencia and Valladolid), which were separated and reunited several times in the Middle Ages.
Climate
Castile and León has long, cold winters, with average temperatures between 3 and 6 °C in January, and short, hot summers (average 19 to 22 °C), but with the three or four months of summer aridity characteristic of the Mediterranean climate. Rainfall, with an average of 450–500 mm per year, is scarce, accentuating in the lower lands.
Talk
Spanish is the main language. Everyone in Castile and Leon speaks Spanish, but in the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca, Leonese is also spoken by a small minority.
Get in
By plane
The most important airport for the region is Madrid-Barajas (MAD), although it is not in Castile-León, but in the neighbouring region of Madrid. From Madrid Airport, you can continue to Segovia and Valladolid by metro and train, or by bus to Salamanca and Burgos.
In Castile-León there are only smaller regional airports: in Valladolid (VLL IATA), León (LEN), Salamanca (SLM) and Burgos-Villafria Airport (RGS IATA). If you want to go to the north of the region, you can also take a flight to Oviedo (OVD) or Santander (SDR).
By train
High-speed trains connect Madrid with Segovia (journey time approx. 30 minutes), Valladolid (1 hour), Zamora (1½ hours) and León (2:15 hours). From Barcelona there are only a few and also quite slow trains to the region, so a transfer connection via Madrid is often the faster option.
From France, the shortest route is via Hendaye and Irun. From there trains to Burgos, Palencia, Valladolid or León.
Get around
The best way to cover the great distances within the region is by train. High-speed trains run several times a day on the Madrid-Segovia-Valladolid-León line, otherwise Media Distancias (MD; corresponds roughly to an Interregio) and Regional Express (RE) are offered.
Castilla y León has an extensive rail network, including the principal lines from Madrid to Cantabria and Galicia. The line from Paris to Lisbon crosses the region, reaching the Portuguese frontier at Fuentes de Oñoro in Salamanca. Astorga, Burgos, León, Miranda de Ebro, Palencia, Ponferrada, Medina del Campo and Valladolid are all important railway junctions.
The region is also crossed by two major ancient routes:
- The Way of St. James, a hiking trail and a motorway, from east to west.
- The Roman Via de la Plata ("Silver Way"), a main road through the west of the region.
See
- 1 Las Médulas. A spectacular landscape where gold was mined during the Roman Empire, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites
- The gothic cathedral of Burgos
- Segovia old town with aqueduct
- Old town and churches outside the city walls of Ávila
- Salamanca old town
- Las Médulas, the ancient site of the most important gold mine of the Roman Empire
- Sierra de Atapuerca, with extraordinary archaeological and paleontological finds, fossils of Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens
- Prehistoric rock carvings in Siega Verde