Tordesillas is a town and municipality in the province of Valladolid, part of the autonomous community of Castile-Leon in central Spain.
It is located 25 km southwest of the provincial capital, Valladolid at an elevation of 702 meters. The population was 8,643 in 2005 (INE 2005). The population was 8,045 in the 2001 census,[1] 6,665 in 1970, 5,838 in 1960, and 5,029 in 1950.
Tordesillas is located on the Duero River, but the river is not navegable up to Tordesillas. There are excellent highway connections (a four-lane freeway) with Madrid, 182 km to the southeast, and with Salamanca, 96 km to the southwest. The provincial capital is also linked by four-lane highway. There are railroad connections with Salamanca, Orense, Madrid, and Valladolid.
Because of its important highway connections Tordesillas has become a major transit hub. The economy is based on services — especially connected to tourism — and the agricultural production of the surrounding area. Wheat has long been the traditional agricultural product.
The town is well served by hotels with a parador, four three-star hotels, one two-star hotel, and 10 hostals and pensions. There is also a camping site. There is also an abundance of restaurants — 27 in total — with the Parador restaurant having a three fork classification. North of the town there is a fertile valley formed by the Duero, with extensive use of irrigation by central pivots.
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History
The Roman Turris Sillae, built on the hill of Siellas, was the bulwark of the defensive line of the Duero during the Reconquest. In 1262 it received its charter from Alfonso X the Wise. The town began to be favored by the royal family and noblity, above all after Alfonso XI built a palace (1325). In the fifteeenth century the town hosted several meetings of the Cortes. During the skirmishes between Henry IV and the nobility the city supported the monarchy, and again during the clashes between the Catholic Monarchs and Joanna La Beltraneja in 1476.
In 1494, the Catholic Monarchs signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which fixed the line to divide the New World between Spain and Portugal.
Despite its traditional support for the monarchy, in the Castilian War the city took the side of the Comuneros, whose leaders came to the town to ask for the mediation of Juana la Loca, locked up in the Santa Clara convent. Finally the royal troops of the Count of Haro captured the city. This was, to a certain extent, the beginning of a long decline, although the position of Tordesillas at a crossing of highways has always been a decisive factor in its economic development.
Monuments
Convent of Santa Clara
This was originally the palace built by Alfonso XI in 1344. His son Pedro the Cruel embellished it and in 1363 ceded it to two of his daughters by María de Padilla. They turned it into a convent, but it retained its role as a royal palace. Blanche de Bourbon was held here after her abandonment by Pedro for María de Padilla in 1353.
In 1420 the Infante Don Enrique of Aragón burst into the palace and seized the person of Juan II who escaped thanks to Álvaro de Luna.
Santa Clara's saddest association is with Queen Juana, the unbalanced daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. She succeeded her mother as queen of Castille in 1504, but the early death of her husband, Philip the Handsome, in 1506 tipped her permanently over the edge. She was confined in the convent from 1509 to her death in 1555, though the exact rooms are unknown. In one room her little clavichord has been preserved.
Here she received her son Charles I after his arrival in Spain in 1517. Charles had landed on the Asturian coast in September and it took six weeks for the royal entourage to reach Tordesillas. The fact that Juana remained queen — at least in theory — until her death must have caused Charles at least some disquiet. His chambers at the monastery of Yuste (Cáceres) to which he retired on his abdication in 1556 were and still are hung in black in her memory.
Pedro the Cruel's Mudéjar artists worked the same magic at Santa Clara, though on a much smaller scale, that they did in the Alcázar in Sevilla. The facade, a lovely small patio, a chapel and the baths remain of Pedro's palace. The former portal, blocked off now, has a particularly fine Mudéjar doorway.
Plaza Mayor and churches
This is an attractive space surrounded by porticles erected in the seventeenth century. Nearby is the church of Santa Maria, built from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It has a monumental baroque sacristy. Other churches are San Juan, San Antolín, San Pedro and Santiago. There are also two convents — Carmelo and San Francisco. The massive 15th-century church of San Antolín is of special interest, containing a museum of religious art taken from churches in the vicinity. The spacious church has a single nave. Its most outstanding feature is the sumptuous Alderete chapel containing the 1550 alabaster tomb of Don Pedro de Alderete, Commander of the Order of Santiago.
Festivals
Festivities in honour of 'La Virgen de La Peña'
Main Feasts in Tordesillas are held in September although the date is variable every year.
The celebrations are in honour of Our Lady 'La Virgen de la Peña', (Our Lady of Sorrow) Patron Saint of the Village and Land of Tordesillas. Her hermitage is located on the other side of the river, where people arrive for the romería (pilgrimage) in carts drawn by decorated horses.
Celebrations begin on 8th of September, Patron Saint's Day of Tordesillas, the 'Virgen de la Guía' (Our Guiding Lady).
Following Saturday to the 8th of September is called "Sábado de Faroles". (The Saturday of torchs or lanterns made of wood). During the night there is the "Desfile de Faroles", a big parade where each competing "peña" (crew or team) carries a "farol" (which is somewhat bigger than a common streetlamp). Each side of the "farol" is painted with typical images about Tordesillas and about the festivities. Crews, accompanied by brass bands, take part in the parade carrying their "faroles", along the streets of the village. The crew judged to have the most beautiful farole is awarded a prize.
The guards' patrol through the old walls of Tordesillas gave rise to this curious celebration that traverses the whole village.
Torneo del Toro de la Vega
The "Virgen de la Peña" Patron Saint's Day is celebrated on Sunday. The following Tuesday there is a well-known local tournament called, in Spanish, "Torneo del Toro de la Vega" (the tournament of the bull in the meadow) , which is an activity that has been declared to be of Regional Tourist Interest, and which has been celebrated for centuries.
The toro (bull) to be sacrificed is driven by horsemen wielding spears across the bridge from the town to a meadow (vega). Only when it reaches the meadow across the river is it finally allowed to receive a lethal lance from one of many competing lancers pursuing the much debilitated animal on foot. During the run (corrida) lancers are only permitted to wound the beast (which causes adrenalin rush and blood-loss and is said to alleviate undue suffering, as well as greatly improving the flavor of the beef so produced). The person who finally delivers the fatal blow is entitled to cut off the beast's testicles parade them through the town impaled on the tip of his spear. The City then awards him a gold medal and a commemorative forged iron spear. This is a form of ritual sacrifice which has been denounced by animal rights groups for the especially prolonged process of slaughter involving terrifying horses, crowds and very many wounds. [2]
Coordinates: 41°30′0″N 5°0′0″W / 41.5°N 5°W
Notes
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