Medina de Pomar

Medina de Pomar is a city in the northern Spanish province of Burgos in the autonomous community of Castile -Leon. The old town was classified as a cultural ( Bien de Interès Cultural ) in the category Conjunto histórico - artístico.

Location

Medina de Pomar lies between the Río Trueba and the Río Nela at an altitude of about 580 meters above sea level. d. M. The distance to the southern provincial capital of Burgos is approximately 80 kilometers ( route ); the nearest large city is Miranda del Ebro (64 kilometers south-east ). The nearby small town of Frías (31 kilometers south-east ) is worth a visit.

Demographics

By the year 1920, the population was always just slightly over two thousand people.

Economy

The soil and the climate in the area are well suited for the cultivation of wheat, potatoes, vegetables and fruit trees; Livestock plays a subordinate role. Tourism and several small businesses determine otherwise, the economic life of the city. In the north, on the road to Bilbao 85 km away, the industrial area of Las Navas was reported.

History

From Celtiberian, Romans and Visigoths been no archeological traces. Although the term medina ( "City " ) indicates a Moorish origin, but it was probably the Christian Mozarabs who brought the name in the 10th, 11th or 12th century in the north. As part of the re-conquest ( reconquista ) of the area, it became a royal possession. However, Henry II gave away these in 1369 to his chamberlain Pedro Fernández de Velasco, who through his work and his possessions laid the foundation for the successful development of the house Velasco. Medina de Pomar was once an important Jewish quarter ( judería ).

Attractions

• The fortress city of Medina de Pomar ( Alcázar de los Condestables de Castilla, often just called Las Torres) emerged in the second half of the 14th century under Pedro Fernández de Velasco. The massive construction is not - like most castles of the time - of a keep ( torre de homenaje ) dominates, but by two lateral tower structures whose ground floor served as a guard area, while the two - windowed - upper floors were used for residential purposes. In the lower middle section were the actual representation and reception rooms. In 1896 the construction of the Velasco family of the city has been paid to the repurposed him at the end of the 20th century into a museum ( Muséo Histórco de las merindades ).
• The three-nave parish church ( Parish Church of Santa Cruz ) was founded in the 14th century and stands on the highest point of the city. It makes the interior a total Gothic impression; The center-piece of their equipment, large late Gothic altarpiece dating from around 1500, comes from the Church of Salinas de Rosio. Outside was added a baroque portico. Because of its good acoustics, in the church often held concert evenings.
• In the heart of the old town still remains of the city walls provided with round towers and three gates have received unimpressive.
• Located in the north of the city church of the former Convento de San Pedro de la Misericordia, which was founded in 1562, houses a large altarpiece, as well as several smaller altarpieces in the side chapels.
• Surrounded by a wall Monastery ( Monasterio de Santa Clara) was formerly outside the city and was surrounded by fields. Since the 19th century, the city enlarged but more and more, so that the monastery moved to its present southern outskirts. It was the Castilian King Ferdinand IV and Alfonso XI in 1313 by Sancho Sánchez de Velasco, the commander and adviser. Doña Sancha García and his wife founded the Poor Clares. The monastery consists essentially of the church, the convent buildings including Cloister ( claustro ) and the family tomb of Íñigo Fernández de Velasco y Mendoza and his wife Maria Tovar y Vivero. The nave church dates from the 14th century, but was rebuilt in the early 16th century with chapel Attachments; 17th-century dates the altarpiece pyramidal constructed. Through a display wall of the west choir ( coro ) is separated with its elegant octagonal star vault from the rest of the church space; Here are the Marmorbildnisse of Íñigo Fernández de Velasco y Mendoza and his wife, who - are shown in perpetual adoration - kneeling between their lecterns. Distributed over the entire interior of the church, there are coats of arms of the house of Velasco. The former chapter house ( sala capitular ) of the monastery has been converted into a museum of sacred art - here are among others the paintings of an Adoration of the Magi from the 15th, a Holy Family with St.. Anna from the early 17th century and the wooden figure of Christ lying ( Cristo Yacente ) by Gregorio Fernández, from the 17th century.

• From the small hermitage ( Ermita de San Millán ) from the end of the 12th century are only the well-preserved Romanesque apse and the south wall of the nave. With its masonry, which is amplified and divided by four buttresses of precisely hewn dressed stone, it is the oldest church in the city. The apse window is only a slit, but outside as well as inside penetrated by two columns acting accompanied with capitals whose simple form language is repeated in the two capitals of the triumphal arch between the nave and apse. The building is now used as Centro de Interpretación del Románico de Las merindades.
• The Church Santuario de Nuestra Señora del Salcinar y del Rosario is located in the southeast of the city, about 250 meters northeast of the hermitage. It is dedicated to the Madonna of the Rosary, patron saint of the city, and many prominent citizens could be buried inside or outside the church. Only a few parts of the original single-nave building dating back to the 13th century (some Romanesque capitals are still preserved ); only in the 16th century, the church got its present three-aisled form. The interior comes largely from the Baroque period and includes a colorful framed Schnitzretabel and an organ dating from 1770 The west portal is a multi- tiered gothic Portalgewände which, however, has neither a tympanum still seated Archivolts arches.; Instead, the portal closes the top in an unusual and improvised -looking arc segment. The tower is constructed completely from Haustein; the belfry on all sides provided with sound holes, however, significantly younger and shows clear features of the Renaissance style.

Sons and daughters of the city

• Angel Castresana (born 1972 ), cyclist