Villanueva del Campillo: the great stone bull of the Vettones

High in the western mountains of Avila, at almost 1,450 metres, the small granite village of Villanueva del Campillo guards an astonishing relic of Spain's pre-Roman past. On its main square stand two ancient stone beasts known as verracos, and the larger of them is the biggest bull sculpture the Iron Age Vettones are known to have carved.

The great verraco

Cut from a single block of granite, the great bull measures about two and a half metres in each direction and, when whole, weighed more than fifteen tonnes. Dated to around the 4th or 3rd century BC, it was found half-buried in a field called the Bull's Ground and re-erected on the square, its missing hindquarters restored, beside a much smaller verraco shaped like a pig. The Vettones, herders and warriors of these uplands, raised such figures to guard their pastures and mark the power of their chieftains.

Village and setting

The handsome parish church of the Nativity, built of fine ashlar in the 16th century with a tower and massive buttresses, rises like a ship above the granite houses. Once held by the Templars in the early 13th century, the village looks out over the high valley country between the Sierra de Gredos and the plains.

Getting there

Villanueva del Campillo is about fifty kilometres west of Avila, off the road towards Piedrahita and the valley of the Tormes.