Salas de los Infantes

Salas de los Infantes municipality
	Salas de los Infantes - Iglesia de Santa Cecilia
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile and León
Province :	Burgos
Comarca :	Sierra de la Demanda (Comarca)
Coordinates	42 ° 1 ′ N , 3 ° 17 ′ W Coordinates: 42 ° 1 ′ N , 3 ° 17 ′ W
Height :	964 msnm
Area :	31.32 km²
Residents :	1,965 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	62.74 inhabitants / km²
Founding:	974
Postal code :	09600
Municipality number ( INE ):	09330
administration
Website :	Salas de los Infantes

Salas de los Infantes is a small town and a municipality ( municipio ) belonging to the poorly populated region of the Serranía Celtibérica with 1,965 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the northern Spanish province of Burgos in the autonomous community of Castile-León .

Location and climate

The small town of Salas de los Infantes is located in the valley of the Río Arlanza on the southern edge of the Sierra de la Demanda at an altitude of about 980 m . The provincial capital, Burgos, is about 58 km to the northwest. The climate is temperate to warm; Rain (approx. 655 mm / year) falls mainly in the winter half-year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2018
Residents	984	1,383	1,769	2,030	1,955

Because of the ongoing immigration from the - in some cases completely abandoned - villages in the mountain region of the Sierra de la Demanda , a steady increase in population has been recorded since the 19th century. The municipality also includes the hamlets (pedanías) Arroyo de Salas , Castrovido , Hoyuelos de la Sierra and Terrazas .

economy

Like the inhabitants of most of the mountain towns in northern Spain, the Salensos also lived for centuries as self-sufficient farmers from raising cattle ( sheep and goats ) and from a little agriculture ( barley and wheat ). A long-life cheese was made from the milk of the animals, which could sometimes be sold in the markets of distant cities. The same applies to sheep's wool, which, however, was also required for the manufacture of one's own clothing; ropes, etc. were woven from the goat hair. At the same time, the small town served as a regional handicraft, trade and service center. In the second half of the 19th and first half of the century, many immigrants tried their luck as miners in the mines (iron, copper, lead and coal) in the area. In October 2008, a factory for the production of fiberboard opened . In the meantime, day and weekend tourism and the rental of holiday homes (casas rurales) play an important role in the economic life of the place.

history

The founding of Salas in 974 as part of the repopulation ( repoblación ) goes back to the Castilian Count García Fernández . The place received the addition de los Infantes only in the late Middle Ages in memory of the sometimes legendary stories of the "Seven Infantes of Lara", who are said to have been beheaded by Almansor , the leader of the Moors around the year 1000; its seven heads were allegedly discovered in 1579 in the church of Santa María and can also be found in the city's coat of arms. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the place experienced a brief heyday due to the ore and coal mining in the Sierra de la Demanda .

Attractions

Iglesia de Santa María

Town hall (ayuntamiento)

According to archaeologists, the Peñarota caves, some of which were man-made, bear witness to the presence of hermits from the 8th to the 11th centuries.

The portal-free and unadorned west facade of the late Gothic parish church (Iglesia de Santa Cecilia) , which was built on a Romanesque predecessor building in the 15th century , whose apse and nave walls are stabilized by buttresses , some of which have a baroque appearance , is dominated by a bell gable (espadaña) . The portal with its profiled archivolt arches is located - as is common in many churches in northern Spain - on the south side of the church.

In front of the church there is a monolithic and - because of the clearly recognizable entarsis - possibly ancient column with a baroque cross.

Built in the 15th and 16th centuries and vaults spanned three-nave Renaissance - hall church of Santa María makes a very representative impression that is reinforced by the originating from the same period the main altar with scenes from the life of Mary.

At the Plaza de Armas the two-storey facade with a narrow continuous balcony of the town hall (ayuntamiento) from the 16th / 17th rises on the front on arcades . Century.

Inaugurated in 2001, the Museo de Salas is mainly dedicated to the presentation and research of dinosaur track finds in the area.

Surroundings

The remains of a medieval castle (Castillo de Castrovido) rise on a hill about 3 km northeast of the village .

literature

Alberto Bengoechea: Historia de Salas. Salas de los Infantes, Museo de Salas, 2003

Web links

Commons : Salas de los Infantes - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Salas de los Infantes - photos + information (wikiburgos, spanish)
Salas de los Infantes, sights - photos + information (arteguias, 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] Salas de los Infantes - climate tables

[3] Salas de los Infantes - Population development

[4] Salas de los Infantes - History

[5] Salas de los Infantes - Peñarota Caves

[6] Salas de los Infantes - Santa Cecilia Church

[7] Salas de los Infantes - Santa María Church

[8] Salas de los Infantes - Dinosaur Tracks

[9] Salas de los Infantes - Castle of Castrovido