Camino del Cid

Quintanas de Gormaz to Berlanga de Duero

Senderos Exile

Wednesday 05 October 2022

Distance: 19.3 km Time: 5:00 Ascent: 190m Descent: 190m – Wikiloc

From Quintanas de Gormaz we cut across directly to Recuerda. It was a good day’s walking on country farm roads with a village every hour.

Looking back at Gormaz Castle next morning

On the outskirts of Recuerda (pop 54) is “La Ciudad de la Alegría” (City of Happiness) with 200 wineries, most but not all abandoned.

Chapel of the Virgen of the Angustias, very well preserved
A fine example of one of many dovecote in this area
16th century Church of San Bartolomé of Gothic origins
In Spanish sunflowers are girasoles meaning “follows the sun”
Almost finished, the heads of these girasoles still look to the sun
On the outskirts of town, hundreds of bodegas (wine cellars) are built into the hill
Some still functioning, we could smell wine fermenting
Bodgeas don’t go straight into the hill but descend steeply
Family of deer feeding on the wheat field

According to El Cantar, El Cid’s daughters crossed the Duero near Morales (pop 32) on their way to Valencia.

Morales Church of Romanesque origins and dedicated to the beheading of Saint John the Baptist was expanded in the 18th century
Duero River near Morales

A frontier area during the 8th to 11th centuries, today Aguilera (pop 16) is a small town of adobe construction with the Romanesque Church of Saint Martin built in stone.

Approaching Aguilera at the foot of El Cabezo hill
Church of San Martin of Aguilera, Romanesque from the 12th century
Huge for a small village and made from carefully cut stone instead of the adobe used in village houses
Arcaded gallery with carved capitals

El Cid was mayor of Berlanga de Duero (pop 745) in 1089. In El Cantar de mío Cid, Berlanga was a safe town where El Cid’s daughters stayed on their way back to Valencia.

The hospital chapel Nuestra Señora de las Torres, rebuilt in 1732
We entered Berlanga de Duero through the 14th century Aguilera Gate
The shell in the top signifies the town’s relationship with the Camino de Santiago
Arcaded main plaza in Berlanga de Duero
Fray Tomás de Berlanga (1487-1551) was born in this house
Bishop of Panama, discoverer of the Galapagos Islands in 1535, he proposed the Panama Canal which came about in 1914
Berlanga de Duero Castle (15th century) on top of the hill
The wall (12th century) was built using stones of the 10th century Arab citadel
The façade of the Renaissance palace of the Lords of Berlanga. 
All that remains – it was burned down during the War of Independence (1808-14) by the Napoleonic troops