Sarmiento Castle, Fuentes de Valdepero, Spain

15th century castle in Sarmiento belonged to the important Sarmiento family. Its last owner was the House of Alba. Acquired by the Provincial Council of Palencia, we can visit the tower, its rooms and its ramparts. It hosts an exhibition entitled PlastiHistoria, showing various scenes made in clay on the history of Palencia. Its keep has a height of 22 meters and the thickness of its walls is the largest of the Spanish castles, reaching 11 meters thick in some places

References:

all-spain.es

User Reviews

Justiniano de Campos (3 years ago)
Impecable restauracion y puesta en valor. Al lado de Palencia y barato el acceso. Recomendable si pasas por la zona

Francisco Javier (3 years ago)
Sencillo. Muy sucia la azotea de excrementos de las palomas. En la planta superior suele tener alguna exposición. Entrada quizás algo cara para lo que realmente se ve en su interior, pero aceptable si pensamos que es una contribución para mantener el patrimonio.

Juan C (3 years ago)
Bonito castillo y curiosa historia perfectamente narrada por las dos chicas que hacen la visita guiada, quienes con su expresión impregnan sensaciones y captan la emoción de hasta los más pequeños. ¡Enhorabuena chicas!

Susana Vegas (3 years ago)
Fantástica la visita guiada... mis hijos y yo misma salimos encantados... lo recomiendo a todo el mundo, merece la pena!!

mat_ bmeijer (5 years ago)
Is actually closed during the week, only open on the weekends. As such, you can olny see it from the outside

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

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Historic Site of the week

Broch of Gurness

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.

The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick. The tower was likely inhabited by the principal family or clan of the area but also served as a last resort for the village in case of an attack.

The broch continued to be inhabited while it began to collapse and the original structures were altered. The cistern was filled in and the interior was repartitioned. The ruin visible today reflects this secondary phase of the broch's use.

The site is surrounded by three ditches cut out of the rock with stone ramparts, encircling an area of around 45 metres diameter. The remains of numerous small stone dwellings with small yards and sheds can be found between the inner ditch and the tower. These were built after the tower, but were a part of the settlement's initial conception. A 'main street' connects the outer entrance to the broch. The settlement is the best-preserved of all broch villages.

Pieces of a Roman amphora dating to before 60 AD were found here, lending weight to the record that a 'King of Orkney' submitted to Emperor Claudius at Colchester in 43 AD.

At some point after 100 AD the broch was abandoned and the ditches filled in. It is thought that settlement at the broch continued into the 5th century AD, the period known as Pictish times. By that time the broch was not used anymore and some of its stones were reused to build smaller dwellings on top of the earlier buildings. Until about the 8th century, the site was just a single farmstead.

In the 9th century, a Norse woman was buried at the site in a stone-lined grave with two bronze brooches and a sickle and knife made from iron. Other finds suggest that Norse men were buried here too.

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