Carrión de los Condes

Municipality of Carrión de los Condes
Carrión de los Condes - the townscape
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile and León
Province :	Palencia
Comarca :	Tierra de Campos
Coordinates	42 ° 20 ′  N , 4 ° 36 ′  W Coordinates: 42 ° 20 ′  N , 4 ° 36 ′  W
Height :	830  msnm
Area :	63.37 km²
Residents :	2,069 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	32.65 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	34120
Municipality number  ( INE ):	34047
administration
Website :	Carrión de los Condes

Cloister of the San Zoilo Monastery

Carrión de los Condes is a small town and a municipality ( municipio ) consisting of the main town and the hamlet (pedanía) Torre de los Molinos with 2,069 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) on the Way of St. James in the northern Spanish province of Palencia in the autonomous community of Castile- Leon .

location

Carrión de los Condes is located on the east bank of the Río Carrión at an altitude of about 830  m . The distance to the southern provincial capital Palencia is approx. 40 km (driving distance); the cities of Burgos and León are about 80 km east and 100 km northwest, respectively. The climate in winter is harsh, but in summer it is dry and warm; Rain (approx. 530 mm / year) falls mainly in the winter half-year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2017
Residents	3,497	3,318	3,516	2,425	2.118

Because of the mechanization of agriculture and the abandonment of small farms, many workers migrated to the larger cities in the second half of the 20th century ( rural exodus ); this resulted in a decline in purchasing power, which also triggered a population decline in the small town.

economy

The area around Carrión de los Condes is largely agricultural, with livestock traditionally playing a less important role; the place offered the necessary regional services in the fields of handicraft and trade. Tourism on the Way of St. James is of considerable importance for the economic life of the small town.

history

According to archaeological finds, the origins of the village go back to pre-Roman times. The nickname of the place ( de los Condes = the counts) refers to the family of the counts Beni-Gómez. Gómez Díaz and his wife Teresa built a Benedictine abbey in the monastery of San Zoilo in 1077 and had a bridge and a pilgrims' hostel built.

The Counts Diego and Fernando Gómez, the "Condes de Carrión", whose tombs can be seen in the monastery, achieved literary fame. According to the legend, which is told in the epic Cantar de Mio Cid , the counts, characterized as cowardly and devious, are said to have married his daughters Elvira and Sol (both fictional names) against the wishes of the famous Castilian knight El Cid and then mistreated and abandoned their wives . The Cid killed both sons-in-law in court battle and married his daughters to the kings of Aragon and Navarre .

However, there is no historical evidence whatsoever for a true core of this legend; In any case, the two brothers mentioned were never married to the Cid's daughters. Rather, it was probably the intention of the author to portray the Cid as an ideal type of knight, whose virtues shine even brighter and purer against the background of such dark figures. Historians also assume that the author of the epic projected into the past a feud that existed in his own time with the descendants of the Counts of Carrión. The Tizona sword , which has been kept in Burgos (previously in Madrid ) since 2007, also plays a role in the story of the dispute between El Cid and his sons-in-law (see there for more details).

In the High Middle Ages, Carrión de los Condes was a very wealthy city, where diets and synods were held. The pilgrim guide Liber Sancti Jacobi praised it as being rich in bread and wine. The portal of the Romanesque St. James' Church shows 22 craftsmen who found plenty of work thanks to the numerous pilgrims. The other Romanesque church in town, Santa María del Camino, shows the “bull miracle”, in which 100 young girls who were to be handed over to the Moors as tribute were saved by two bulls. (The background is the Moorish demands for tribute to people of different faiths, on which the Moorish household was largely based. In the propaganda of the Reconquista , the double meaning of the word Doncella = “virgin” or the name of a “piece of gold” was cleverly used.)

In 1474, Enrique IV, Count of Benavente , had Carrión de los Condes expanded into a fortress. Its walls, towering high above the Río Carrión, shape the appearance of the city to this day.

Attractions

• Hospital de la Herrada
• Iglesia de Santa María del Camino
• Monasterio de Santa Clara
• Monasterio de San Zoilo
• Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Belén

Personalities

Carrión de los Condes is the birthplace of:

• Sem Tob ben Ishaq ibn Ardutiel (around 1290 – around 1369), Jewish-Spanish poet
• Iñigo López de Mendoza , Marqués de Santillana (1398–1458), humanist, poet and statesman
• Luis de Velasco (1511–1564), Viceroy of New Spain
• Luis de Velasco y Castilla (1539–1617), Viceroy of New Spain and Peru
• Miguel de Benavides (1552 – around 1605), Dominican , Archbishop of Manila

literature

• Christian Angermann: Carrión de los Condes. Citizen sculpture on the Spanish pilgrimage route . Hamburg 1986.
• Míllan Bravo Lozano: Practical pilgrim guide. The Camino de Santiago. Editorial Everest, Léon 1994, ISBN 84-241-3835-X .
  (a classic of the modern pilgrimage and a good combination of knowledge about the path and historical, architectural and cultural facts about what you encounter on the right and left of the path).
• Lorena García García: Monasterio de San Zoilo de Carrión de los Condes. Arte e historia de un hito cluniacense . Asociación de Amigos del Camino de Santiago de Palencia, Palencia 2014.
• Marta Prieto Sarro: Carrión de los Condes (Palencia) . Edilesa, León 1999, ISBN 84-8012-251-X .
• Martín Ramírez de Helguera: El libro de Carrión de los Condes (con su historia) . Mayor Pral, Palencia 1896.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).
2. ↑ Carrión de los Condes - Climate tables
3. ↑ Carrión de los Condes - population development
4. ^ Ana Belén Sánchez Prieto: Tres castillos palentinos de la Casa del Infantado . In: Pedro Luis Huerta (ed.): La fortificación medieval en la Península Ibérica . Fundación Santa María la Real, Aguilar de Campóo 2001, ISBN 84-89483-15-9 , pp. 219–223, here p. 219.

Web links

Commons : Carrión de los Condes  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Carrión de los Condes, sights - photos + brief information (spanish)

Navigation bar St. James " Camino Francés "

← Previous location: Villalcázar de Sirga 6 km  | Carrión de los Condes  | Next town: Calzadilla de la Cueza 17 km  →