UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Spain
Antequera Dolmens Site
The Antequera Dolmens Site is a cultural heritage ensemble comprising three prehistorical monuments: the Dolmen of Menga, Dolmen of Viera and Tholos of El Romeral. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 2016 together with two natural mountain features (the Peña de los Enamorados and El Torcal). Built during the Neolithic and the Bronze Age out of large stone blocks that form chambers and spaces with lintelled roofs ...
Founded: 3000 BCE |
Location:
Antequera, Spain
Santa María de la Cabeza
Built outside the walls to the north of the town, Santa María de la Cabeza was consecrated in 1210 and is the last example of the Romanesque style in Ávila. Its upper end was begun in Romanesque style and was followed by the construction of the naves in unquestionable Mudejar style. The three apses, which open into three naves, were built in granite on the outside and finished off with a small, plain cornice in Caleno g ...
Founded: 1210 |
Location:
Ávila, Spain
Las Médulas
Las Médulas is a historic gold mining site near the town of Ponferrada. It was the most important gold mine (and largest open pit gold mine) in the entire Roman Empire. Las Médulas Cultural Landscape is listed by the UNESCO as one of the World Heritage Sites. The spectacular landscape of Las Médulas resulted from the ruina montium (wrecking of the mountains), a Roman mining technique described by Pliny the ...
Founded: 0-100 AD |
Location:
Las Médulas, Spain
Monastery of La Encarnación
The Monastery of La Encarnación was founded inside the town's walls in 1478, and as a Carmelite convent it was moved to outside the town in the 16th century. The new monastery was built on land that had been acquired by the Council on what had previously been a Jewish cemetery. On 4 April 1515, the date on which the saint was baptised, the unfinished monastery was opened with four naves enclosing a central courtyard and ...
Founded: 1478 |
Location:
Ávila, Spain
San Andrés Church
San Andrés church was built in the quarter of Ajates (a suburb of mediaeval origin in which the main trade was masonry) in the second quarter of the 12th century. It was made in Caleno granite (very typical of the Romanesque style in the town) and is set according to liturgical criteria with an upper end with three apses that correspond to the three naves in the interior; it does not have a transept nave. The protruding ...
Founded: 12th century |
Location:
Ávila, Spain
Cave of Altamira
The Cave of Altamira is located near the historic town of Santillana del Mar. It is renowned for prehistoric parietal cave art featuring charcoal drawings and polychrome paintings of contemporary local fauna and human hands. The earliest paintings were applied during the Upper Paleolithic, around 36,000 years ago. Because of their deep galleries, isolated from external climatic influences, these caves are particularly we ...
Founded: 36,000 BCE |
Location:
Santillana del Mar, Spain
San Nicolás Church
San Nicolás church stands in the suburb of the same name outside the walls, a medieval quarter inhabited by Christians and dedicated to agriculture and sheep farming. It also had a large number of Mudejar residents. It was built in Caleno granite in the late-Romanesque style of Ávila between the second half of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th. The upper end and porches remain from the original construction ...
Founded: 12th century |
Location:
Ávila, Spain
Archaeological Site of Atapuerca
The Archaeological Site of Atapuerca is located near the city of Burgos. The property contains a rich fossil record of the earliest human beings in Europe, from nearly one million years ago and extending into the Common Era. It constitutes an exceptional scientific reserve that provides priceless information about the appearance and way of life of these remote human ancestors. The Sierra de Atapuerca sites provide uniqu ...
Founded: 800000 BCE |
Location:
Atapuerca, Spain
Tito Bustillo Cave
The Tito Bustillo Cave is a prehistoric rock shelter located in the small town of Ribadesella. The cave was inhabited by humans (cro-magnon) before the year 10,000 BC. Due to the collapse of the rock, the original entrance to the cave was sealed thousands of years ago, which made it possible for preservation of objects, tools and wall paintings that were discovered in 1968. Based on those objects found in the cave, it is ...
Founded: 33000-10000 BCE |
Location:
Ribadesella, Spain
Siega Verde
Siega Verde is an archaeological site in Serranillo, Villar de la Yegua. It was joined to the Côa Valley Paleolithic Art site in the World Heritage List in 2010. The site consists of a series of rock carvings, discovered in 1988 by professors Manuel Santoja, during an inventory campaign of archaeological sites in the valley of the Águeda river. Subjects include equids, aurochs, deer and goats, among the most com ...
Founded: 18000 BCE |
Location:
Villar de la Yegua, Spain
Cave of Chufín
The cave of Chufín is situated at the confluence of the Lamasón and Nansa rivers. Several caves are ornamented with rock art pock the steep slopes above the water. Chufín is one of the caves included in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites under the entry Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain. In Chufín were found different levels of occupation, the oldest being around 20000 years old. The sm ...
Founded: 18000 BCE |
Location:
Rionansa, Spain
Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Photo from Flickr, copyright klasuli-fototechnik
Historic Site of the week
Krickenbeck Castle
Krickenbeck moated castle is one of the oldest on the lower Rhine. Its history dates back to the year 1104, when the castle was first mentioned. It is unclear why the old castle, which was certainly inhabited by Count Reginar, was abandoned or destroyed. In the mid-13th century the castle was moved to the current location. At the end of the 14th century the new castle belonged to the Counts of Kleve.
Johann Friedrich II of Schesaberg converted the castle into a Baroque mansion between 1708-1721. On September 7, 1902, a fire destroyed the entire mansion. From 1903 to 1904, a three-winged castle was built in the Neo-Renaissance style. Today Krickenbeck is a conference center.