Burgos information
La Bureba region
If there is well-defined region in the Burgos
lands, that is La Bureba. An extensive region situated to the
north-east of the Province, rich in landscape, art and history,
irrigated by multiple streams and small rivers. A "miniature
Castile", where it is easy to find "the heart of the
lands of Burgos", as Azorín said, and of all the natural
regions of Spain one of the most attractive. It is one of the
first regions that acquire a definite personality within the Castilian
county. The line of rock castles of Frias, Poza de la Sal, Pancorbo
and Monastery of Rodillo gave refuge and facilitated Christian
repopulation, during the reconquest towards the Duero.
La Bureba forms a large plain surrounded by high mountainous elevations.
A kind of trough closed to the North by the Mesa de Oña;
by the bleak uplands Altotero, over Poza de la Sal, to the West;
to the East by the Obarenes Mounts where the Pancorbo gorge, the
gateway to Castile opens up, and to the South, by the Mounts of
Oca and Sierra of La Demanda, and the Alto de la Brujula.
Santa Cassilda
If there is a corner that is specially loved by the people from
La Bureba, that is the sanctuary of St. Casilda, situated in a
beautiful spot very near to Briviesca. Tradition says that this
beautiful Moorish princess born in Toledo, saddened by the bad
treatment that the Christian prisoners received in her kingdom,
went to help them by giving them food. One day, when her father
surprised her taking bread to the prisoners, the princess declared
that what she had hidden in her silk tunic were flowers, and the
bread miraculously changed into roses. Greatly saddened the princess
went to take refuge next to the lakes of St. Vicente where she
withdrew in praise of saintliness until her death. Her festivity,
in the middle of May, known as the festivity of "la tabera"
due to the traditional game of "taba" (jacks), compulsory on that
day in the capital of La Bureba- is one of the most traditional
and most attended of the province.
The Romanesque of La Bureba
Among the rich heritage of monuments offered by La Bureba there
is a series of particularly important Romanesque churches. Very
close to Burgos is the Monastery of Rodilla, near to which is
the hermitage of Nuestra Señora del Valle, a beautiful
Romanesque temple. It was built in the 12th century and is the
prototype of a Romanesque church in Burgos. The hermitage of St.
Facundo is also very original. This is to be found in Barrios
de Bureba, and was built in the 12th century. Currently only the
apse and the belfry remain standing, raised on the original triumphal
arch.
Also in the area, we must mention the churches of Valdazo, Soto
de Bureba, Hermosilla, with extremely beautiful decoration on
the archivolts of their doors; Abajas, Navas de Bureba, Aguilar
de Bureba, Pino de Bureba and Oña, in whose monastery of
St. Salvador there are interesting Romanesque remains.