Rural Spain Properties

AREA GUIDES >> RURAL PROPERTIES IN CASTILLA LEÓN

At a glance
photoSpain’s largest region, Castilla y León, sits on the northern half of the country’s central plateau.

It is a land of expansive plains, cereal fields and vineyards, broken up by mountains and hills topped with castles and watch-towers.
Some of the country’s greatest architectural treasures are preserved in the historical cities of this region’s nine provinces: León, Zamora, Salamanca, Ávila, Segovia, Palencia, Burgos, Soria, and the regional capital, Valladolid.

Properties
There are properties of all descriptions available throughout the region of Castilla y León. Properties with vineyards, functioning rural hotels and old ruins with bags of potential.

Castilla y León has a large variation in prices. Generally, the prices will increase with proximity to provincial capital cities

Airports
The region is well served by Valladolid airport, which has links to a number of European cities. Castilla y León can also be reached by flying to airports in Madrid, Porto, Oviedo, Santander, Santiago de Compostella, A Coruña, Zaragoza and Vitoria.

Climate
The region’s high average altitude creates cool, dry winters and warm, dry summers. Snow can be found during the winter months in the mountainous parts of the region.

Historic value
Most of Spain’s invaders and settlers have left their mark somewhere in this region, which is named after the two medieval kingdoms Castile and León which Fernando I first united in 1037.

Segovia – included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 1985 - boasts Spain’s largest standing Roman structure, an aqueduct probably built around 50 AD, along with an Alcázar castle dating from the 11th century and a Gothic cathedral.

Ávila is also UNESCO-listed for its charming 11th-century old town, its Gothic cathedral and its surrounding wall erected to protect the city from the Moors.

Also recognised by UNESCO are Burgos’ magnificent Gothic cathedral and the ancient university town of Salamanca “Spain’s Oxford” which has fine examples of Gothic, Moorish, Renaissance and Baroque monuments.

photoAt Las Medulas, in León, you can still see the devastation of the landscape where the Romans exploited the region’s gold deposits, a fascinating insight into the Romans´ innovative use of hydraulic technology.

It’s also worth paying a visit to the Peninsular War battlefields where the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon locked horns, in Salamanca and Cuidad Rodrigo.

Culture
In 2002 Salamanca was the European Capital of Culture, with plenty of examples of it’s tenure still on show.

Some of the best examples of Spanish Renaissance sculpture are on show at Valladolid’s National Museum of Sculpture. Valladolid is also an ideal place to be on Good Friday when a procession of 28 sculptures depict scenes from the Passion.

Other diary dates in Castilla y León are seriously hair-raising. On the Sunday after Corpus Christi, in Castrillo de Murcia, don’t be alarmed to see babies lined up on mattresses and a man in a bright yellow and red outfit jumping over them. This is El Colacho and he is in fact freeing the little ones from illness.

In Soria, in June, for San Pedro Manrique, local men walk barefoot over burning coals.

On St Agatha’s day in Segovia (on the closest Sunday to 5 February), married women burn a stuffed figure representing a man!

Food and drink
Expect flavoursome, nourishing meals here. Big favourites are lamb roasts, chuletones de Ávila (beef chops) and garlic soup.

Cochinillo asado (suckling pig) is regular on menus, the big test of its quality is when the chefs can part the slices with the side of a plate. Cured and prepared meats are exceptional and Burgos is particularly famous for its black pudding with rice. This is also a region which values pulses in cooking, particularly the large butter beans from Barco de Ávila.

There is no shortage of sweets either, particularly egg-based ones such as the Yemas de Santa Teresa in Avila.

Castilla y León is also a paradise for wine-lovers of all palates – from the renowned Ribera del Duero to four others which are now denominaciones de origen: Rueda, Toro, Cigales and Bierzo.

Ribera del Duero has fast been catching up with Rioja and some of the best Spanish wines are coming from this region. Premium wineries such as Vega Sicilia, Protos and Pesquera have all put the region on the wine buff map.

Natural beauty
It may be renowned for its historical cities and towns, but Castilla y León is also lucky enough to have beautiful mountainous countryside.

Some of the magnificent peaks of the Picos de Europa lie in the León province while the mountain range Sierra de Gredos in Ávila is a great place to go walking, fishing or hunting.

photoThe rolling hills of the Sierra de Francia and Sierra de Bejar contain pretty, traditional villages and a Dominican monastery on the highest peak, La Peña de Francia.

The region has several nature reserves, one of the most beautiful being around the Río Lobos Canyon, a gorge of rugged rock formations where vultures and eagles can be spotted.

To the north is the fabulous lakeland region of the Sierra de Urbión.