Sasamón

Sasamón municipality
	Sasamón - forecourt of the Collegiate Church of Santa María la Real
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile and León
Province :	Burgos
Comarca :	Odra-Pisuerga
Coordinates	42 ° 25 ′ N , 4 ° 3 ′ W Coordinates: 42 ° 25 ′ N , 4 ° 3 ′ W
Height :	825 msnm
Area :	113.11 km²
Residents :	983 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	8.69 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	09123
Municipality number ( INE ):	09363
administration
Website :	Sasamón

Sasamón is a northern Spanish city and a municipality ( municipio ) with 983 inhabitants (at January 1, 2019) in the west of the province of Burgos in the autonomous community of Castile and Leon . The place was recognized as a national cultural asset ( Bien de Interés Cultural ) in the category Conjunto histórico-artístico .

Location and climate

The place Sasamón is located in the Castilian plateau ( meseta ) approx. 1 km from the east bank of the Río Brullés and approx. 12 km (driving distance) north of the main route of the Camino de Santiago at an altitude of approx. 825 m ; the city of Burgos is about 31 km to the west. The temperatures are quite cold in winter, but warm to hot in summer; Rain (approx. 580 mm / year) falls over the year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2018
Residents	1,080	1,190	1,047	1,511	995

Despite the phylloxera crisis in viticulture and the increasing mechanization of agriculture , the community's population has remained almost stable. The municipality also includes the independent villages of Castrillo, Citores, Olmillos, Villandiego, Villasidro and Yudego - all of them with around 30 to a maximum of 200 inhabitants.

economy

For centuries, Sasamón was the artisanal and mercantile center of a large number of individual farmsteads (fincas) , hamlets (pedanías) and small villages in the agricultural surroundings. Tourism hardly plays a role, although Sasamón has gained a few visitors in recent years thanks to its agricultural products (especially cheese and meat specialties).

history

The history of Sasamón and the surrounding area can probably be traced back to Celtic or Celtiberian origins; the area belonged to the settlement area of the Vaccaeans . Place names such as Segisamone or Segisama have been handed down from Roman times , in which a legion was stationed under Emperor Augustus , which was supposed to pacify and Romanise the previously unconquered areas in the north of the Iberian Peninsula . Remnants of the Roman road from Saragossa ( Caesaraugusta ) to Astorga ( Asturica Augusta ) can still be identified just outside the village . However , no traces of the Visigoths and Moors have survived. The latter were pushed back as far as the Duero River in the late 9th century .

In the 11th century, Sancho II (ruled 1065-1072) made the city a bishopric, which however did not last long and was moved to Burgos, whose bishop, however, carried the title "Bishop of Burgos and Sasamón" for a long time. In the 15th century the city received a defensive wall. During the Napoleonic Wars , the parish church and town hall of the village were set on fire in 1812 and completely destroyed.

Attractions

Sasamón

In the core area of Sasamón hardly any sights of historical importance have been preserved - only a remnant of the city wall and several stone houses with coats of arms bear witness to the medieval importance of the city.

Collegiate Church of Santa María la Real

The former collegiate church (colegiata) Santa María la Real stands in an elongated square in the center of the village. It is a building in the Gothic style with an imposing south transept portal with a richly structured cloak with archivolts and an excellently preserved tympanum with an unusual pictorial program: This shows - in addition to the enthroned Christ and the tetramorph ( evangelist symbols ) - four people at writing or reading desks, who are surrounded by angels. In the archivolts there are angels with candlesticks and censer and the elders of the Apocalypse ; The twelve apostles , arranged in pairs, sit in the stone lintel beam - the fourth from the right is the beardless John . The cloister (claustro) dates from the middle of the 15th century; while his tracery arcades have a rather retarding character, his figurative ornamentation (console figures) is completely up to date. Also noteworthy is another portal on the south side of the church in Isabelline style from the beginning of the 16th century; it is attributed to the master Simon of Cologne , who - as the successor of his father John of Cologne - worked mainly at the cathedral of Burgos . The interior of the church has been converted into a museum in which Roman and medieval objects are shown.

Triumphal Cross in the Ermita

Gothic tympanum
Cloister ( claustro )
Angel with a bagpipe
Angel with lute

The single-aisled hermit church (Ermita del Humilladero or San Isidro) from the 16th and 18th centuries stands at the eastern exit of the village and preserves an extraordinary approx. 6.15 m high stone triumphal cross from the year 1521. It shows a (life) tree with it severed branches, the trunk of which is entwined by a snake with a human head. The obverse shows two scenes from the Old Testament: the fall of Adam and Eve and the fratricide of Cain against Abel . At the bottom is St. Margaret of Antioch is shown with the iconographically assigned dragon at her feet - probably the patron saint of the unknown founder. A crucifix rises above the crown of leaves, symbolizing the victory of Christianity over the sins of the Old Covenant . On the back of the cross there is a representation of Mary with the two themes of the Ascension and the Coronation - summarized here - as well as a figure of St. Catherine of Alexandria with the wheel. The ribbed apse behind the cross hides the altar with a baroque retable . A carved figure of St. Isidro was stolen and replaced with another in the 1990s.

Olmillos de Sasamón

In the suburb of Olmillos de Sasamón , about 1.5 km to the south, there is a late medieval castle (Castillo de los Cartagena) from the 15th century in a very good state of preservation. It was converted into a hotel with an attached restaurant.
Also worth seeing is the three-aisled late Gothic hall church of the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción with an extraordinarily richly designed star or net vault , a baroque carved altar with almost ' naive ' figure decorations as well as other altars, figures, pictures etc.

San Miguel de Mazarreros

The slightly sharpened and stepped portal arch (Arco de Mazarreros) is the last remnant of the church of the village of San Miguel de Mazarreros, which was abandoned in the 19th century and completely submerged . The set columns of the portal vestment have disappeared; some capitals are still in poor condition.