Charming Spanish villages: Quintanilla Escalada, Burgos

Located in the Sedano Valley and belonging to the region of Páramos, Quintanilla Escalada is another one of those small rural towns, whose roots are lost in the dark night of time.

Given its privileged situation, on the border with Palencia and Cantabria, its origins date back to the first repopulations carried out by the kings of the Asturian monarchy, such as Ramiro, so we should talk about historical settlements, at least, from of the ninth century.

It is also remarkable its proximity to a spectacular geographical accident, such as the so-called Canyons of the Ebro, which provide not only interesting hiking trails but also the ideal setting to make Quintanilla Escalada a surprisingly idyllic town.

Its architecture, which mixes the typical mountain with the practical of the mesetary ways of life, makes it a really picturesque town, pleasant to see and visit.

This picturesqueness is seen even more enhanced by the ornamental remains that can be seen in some of its houses, mostly from the disappeared monastery of San Martín de Escalada.

Among these remains, it is worth mentioning the house that once inhabited one of the town's doctors, in which several covers are reused, reused, as well as other ornamental elements, which no doubt belonged to the disappeared monastery.

The decoration of the covers, basically consisting of hexapétalas flowers immersed in a circle, induces us to think, not only in the symbolic concepts of death and rebirth associated - as has been said on other occasions, these types of elements were part of the motives Funeral decorations used previously by Celts, Romans and Visigoths - but also, in the added superstitions, and specifically, until well into the Modern Age, they were still used as protection against witches.

Do not forget, that in relation to the theme of witchcraft, Spain was a country where the famous Inquisition really acted harshly, being active until practically the nineteenth century.

In fact, the theme of witchcraft in the North was always very active. Just remember places like Zugarramurdi, in Navarra, or the famous witch councils in the Asturian Peña Ubiña, located near the famous Puerto de Pajares, border border between Asturias and León.

Other interesting reasons, which make us long for the interesting medieval decoration related to the disappeared monastery of San Martín de Escalada, are the faced lions, which can be reused as filler in the mentioned house of the doctor, as well as other floral or foliaceous ones, which make us suppose, the great knowledge that monks and stonecutters used to have from the plant world, which they used to go in search of apothecary and where numerous remedies arose, which constituted the fundamental principles of modern pharmacies.

Also in the town, a few meters from the church of San Miguel - a strange hybrid that also takes advantage of elements of previous hermitages - you can see the unrecognizable remains of what was once the Romanesque hermitage of San Román.

I remember that the first impression I had when I saw the strange tower of the church of San Miguel, is that I associated it, because of its appearance, with that no less strange and that it is part of the fascinating legend of the Visigothic treasure found by Abbot Saunier in Rennes-le-Chateau, which he dedicated to the figure of Mary of Magdala, whose remains, as well as an alleged 'tomb of Christ', legends place in such a place.

In fact, it is related to the true melancholic picture of the painter Nicolás Poussin, which is entitled ‘Les bergiers d’Arcadi’ or ‘The shepherds of Arcadia’, reproduces a strange tomb.

Speculations apart and continuing with the issue, at the exit of the town and practically at the foot of the road, there is a hermitage dedicated to that dark and holy patron of the walkers, which is San Roque, although its interior shows a deep state of deterioration.

Because of the medieval aspect that can still be seen in its streets, Quintanilla Escalada was declared as a whole, in 1992, a Site of Cultural Interest.

In short: a place where you can unleash a multitude of experiences, with infinite possibilities to make attractive routes, good hiking or cultural, and strategically located with communities such as the Cantabrian and the Palencia, distant, in addition, just 60 kilometers from Burgos capital.

NOTICE: Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property.

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