Poza de la Sal

Poza de la Sal municipality
	Poza de la Sal - View of the town with the castle
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile and León
Province :	Burgos
Comarca :	La Bureba
Coordinates	42 ° 40 ′ N , 3 ° 30 ′ W Coordinates: 42 ° 40 ′ N , 3 ° 30 ′ W
Height :	765 msnm
Area :	81.9 km²
Residents :	287 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	3.5 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	09246
Municipality number ( INE ):	09272
administration
Website :	Poza de la Sal

Poza de la Sal is a place and a municipality ( municipio ) with 287 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the north of the Spanish province of Burgos in the autonomous region of Castile-León . The entire town center is recognized as a cultural asset ( Bien de Interés Cultural ) in the Conjunto histórico-artístico category .

Location and climate

The place Poza de la Sal is located in the fertile region of the Bureba at an altitude of approx. 765 m . The provincial capital Burgos is located approx. 47 km (driving distance) southwest; the lovely town of Briviesca is a good 23 km southeast. The climate is temperate to warm; The rain, which is abundant by Spanish standards (approx. 735 mm / year) falls - with the exception of the summer months - over the year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2017
Residents	2,447	1.952	1,318	384	303

As a result of the mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the resulting lack of jobs, the population of the community experienced a collapse in the middle of the 20th century. The municipality also includes the two hamlets (pedanías) Castil de Lences and Lences (de Bureba), each with around 40 inhabitants .

economy

From the Middle Ages to the first half of the 20th century, the place was the artisanal and mercantile center of several villages and individual farms in the area; the salt pans formed an important source of income . Today the cultivation of grain and livestock are important; Tourism in the form of renting holiday apartments is also an important source of income for the municipality.

history

The place was originally a settlement of the Celtic Autrigones and was then called Salionca ; the Romans also mined salt here. Visigothic and even Moorish traces are missing. At the end of the 9th and beginning of the 10th century, the Moors were pushed back into the areas south of the Duero ( reconquista ) under the leadership of the Castilian Counts Diego Rodríguez Porcelos (r. 873–885) and Fernán González ; thereafter a policy of repopulation ( repoblación ) was carried out in the areas north of the Duero . At the end of the 10th century, the Muslim military leader Almansor devastated the region for the last time. In the Middle Ages, the then small town received a castle (castillo) on a rock and was surrounded by a wall.

Attractions

Poza de la Sal - city gate

The ruins of the Castillo de los Rojas are perched on a rock high above the town. Parts of the medieval city wall (muralla) are still preserved.

The three-aisled church of San Cosme y San Damián is a work of the 13th century; however, it received a new portal in the 17th century. The late baroque altarpiece (retablo) shows the two patron saints and other figures.

Numerous half-timbered houses adorn the town center.

The salt dome is one of the largest in Europe; the water is channeled through small aqueducts through the town to the saline basins located approx. 1 km to the northwest.

Lences de Bureba

The church in the village about 6 km to the south has a Romanesque origin, but it was later Gothicized. A south porch ( portico ) that protects the impressive Romanesque archivolt portal is rare that far north .
Nearby, a single arched late medieval bridge with a raised apex crosses one of the region's many streams.

Castil de Lences

The Monasterio de la Asunción has medieval origins; the apse of the church and the cloister (claustro) date from the end of the 14th century, but most of the monastery buildings were modernized at a later date and the chapter house is spanned by an artesonado wooden ceiling.
The simple church of the place is Romanesque.