Piérnigas (Burgos)

Piérnigas municipality
Piérnigas - town view
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile and León
Province :	Burgos
Comarca :	La Bureba
Coordinates	42 ° 35 ′  N , 3 ° 25 ′  W Coordinates: 42 ° 35 ′  N , 3 ° 25 ′  W
Height :	730  msnm
Area :	13.4 km²
Residents :	51 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	3.81 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	09246
Municipality number  ( INE ):	09265
administration
Website :	Piérnigas

Piérnigas is a northern Spanish town and a rural municipality ( municipio ) with only 51 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the province of Burgos in the autonomous community of Castile-León .

Location and climate

The place Piérnigas is located in the center of the Comarca La Bureba at an altitude of about 730  m . The provincial capital Burgos is a good 41 km (driving distance) to the southwest; Briviesca , the capital of the region, is a good 14 km to the south-east. The climate in winter is harsh, but in summer it is temperate and warm; the rain (approx. 690 mm / year), which is sufficient for Spanish conditions, falls - with the exception of the summer months - over the year.

Population development

year	1857	1930	1950	2000	2017
Residents	-	197	215	41	39

The mechanization of agriculture and the closure of smaller farms have led to a loss of jobs and thus to a migration of people to the larger cities ( rural exodus ) since the middle of the 20th century .

economy

For centuries, the inhabitants of the community lived mainly from agriculture (agriculture, viticulture and small livestock farming) as a self-sufficient living ; only since the middle of the 20th century has it been produced for the national market. Tourism in the form of rental of holiday homes (casas rurales) has also played a certain role in the municipality's income since the 1960s.

history

The landscape of the Bureba was already known to the people of the Stone Age and ancient times as a much-used connecting route; Celts from the tribe of the Autrigones settled here and the Romans called their later settlement near the present-day Monasterio de Rodilla Tritium Autrigonum . In the 8th and early 9th centuries, the area was under Islamic influence, but the area was neither permanently settled nor defended by the Berbers due to the unusually harsh and rainy climate . At the end of the 9th century, the Castilian Count Diego Rodríguez Porcelos received from King Alfons III. of Asturias the order to repopulate ( repoblación ) the depopulated area. The town was founded at this time and was first mentioned in a document in 1011. In the following years there was a close connection to the Abbey of Oña . In the 1920s, the community broke away from integration into today's neighboring community of Rojas .

Attractions

Iglesia de San Cosme y San Damián

• The single-nave Iglesia de San Cosme y San Damián , constructed from precisely hewn stones, is dedicated to Cosmas and Damian, who were revered as healers in the Middle Ages . The small Romanesque church was supposed to be enlarged in the 16th century, but the actual construction work was limited to the choir area and the apse , which is more than twice as high as the old nave .

Surroundings

• Approx. 1 km northwest of the village is the Ermita de San Martín , a small but precisely bricked late Romanesque building with buttresses from around 1300 and a bell gable (espadaña) over the triumphal arch . The archivolt portal protrudes slightly from the surrounding wall, but here and on the rest of the building - unusual for Romanesque architecture - there is not a single figurative or even ornamental sculpture.

Web links

Commons : Piérnigas  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Piérnigas - Photos + Info (Spanish)

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. ↑ Piérnigas - climate tables
3. ↑ Piérnigas - Population Development
4. ↑ Piérnigas - History
5. ↑ Piérnigas - Ermita