Tour A. Nature and Romanesque Art in The Montaña Palentina

- Cultural and Nature Tour.

- 7 days discovering the cultural and natural heritage of  Montaña Palentina.

- ACOMODATION: 6 nights staying at “El Mayorazgo”
- DATES: May - June - July - September -October

This journey takes us to the past in a fun and quiet way, with constant contact with a beautiful natural environment and addressed to anyone who wants to forget the clock and the hurry of life, and wants to enjoy all this very special region can offer.

After arrival at Santander’s airport we travel to the small town of  “Cordovilla de Aguilar”, where we stay at El Mayorazgo, a set of carefully restored cottages dating from the seventeenth century: three very different fully equipped homes. From here we’ll depart every morning to start the different excursions, and here is where we’ll return in the evening, to have time to have a rest, relax, converse, and to read our guides, .. This is what we do while we wait with particular attention to the arrival of the dinner prepared by Rosa, with traditional recipes and a special touch, and no doubt always will appeal to all.

Almost one millennium ago the north of Palencia, was an important place for Romanesque art, imported from Europe. Favored by the great routes of movement of people between kingdoms, the Camino de Santiago that connected with other parts of Europe, made this area a center of diffusion for this new way of life and its cultural approach. All town councils wanted to have their church and participate in these new trends that awoke in its people: new expectations and a new way of understanding life and death. Centuries pass and the region of Montaña Palentina became falling into obscurity. Beginning in the thirteenth century, a new architectural trend, Gothic, was being implemented in different parts of the peninsula, which here just has a minimal presence. One hundred twenty perfectly preserved Romanesque churches are found in this region, making it the highest concentration of Romanesque architecture in Europe and one of the best preserved. There is no town that doesn’t have its Romanesque church, with a group of houses of the purest mountain style. The isolation and geographical layout of Montaña Palentina, has preserved the greatest part of a wonderful landscape and wild nature.

The Montaña Palentina is located in the centre of the “Cordillera Cantabrica”, between the Castilian-Leonese plateau and the Bay of Biscay, making it one of the most biodiverse regions in Europe. Over the several days of our visits to see the interesting cultural heritage, we’ll have the support of our 4x4 vehicles in the corners of the park's most unique natural, large deciduous oak and beech forests, seeing vertical mountains and hidden valleys, enjoying the birds, butterflies, plants....and hopefully the sighting the most important examples of carnivores of the peninsula: the Iberian wolf and brown bear, as these places are among  the best habitat in the Cantabrian Mountains. Picnics will be in the field, always in places where one can enjoy spectacular landscape, while tasting the various local products: variety of cheeses, vegetables, meats ... and, of course the delicious Spanish omelet  prepared by our cook Rosa.

The list of different species that we may see is very extensive: 170 species of birds present throughout the year, especially alpine birds, 2,560 listed plants, many of them endemic to the region, 150 butterflies -- more than half of those present in the Iberian Peninsula, many of them only present in the region, 67 species of carnivores, among them the brown bear and Iberian wolf, 18 of the 22 species of amphibians that exist in the Iberian peninsula, 22 of 35 species of reptiles found on the Iberian Peninsula are also present in this region.

All this and much more, make "Montaña Palentina" an ideal place to spend a different holidays in a friendly atmosphere, enjoying its rich cultural heritage, natural and gastronomic offerings.