Cuenca de Campos: Mudejar treasures of the Tierra de Campos
The little town of Cuenca de Campos, on the road between Medina de Rioseco and Villalon in northern Valladolid province, once counted five churches and three hermitages, a measure of its past splendour. Around two hundred people live here now, but two of its monuments are protected as national heritage and reward any detour through the Tierra de Campos.
Two protected churches
The church of Santos Justo y Pastor, a Mudejar building of brick, shelters one of the finest wooden ceilings in the province, a polychrome coffered artesonado, together with a 16th-century main altarpiece by Pedro de Bolduque and a museum of sacred art rich in carvings by the Gothic master Alejo de Vahia. Not far away rises Santa Maria del Castillo, a Gothic-Mudejar church of the 14th century now used for exhibitions, while the former convent of San Bernardino de Siena and a 17th-century arcaded town hall complete the ensemble.
The storm tower
On a small rise stands the Conjuradero, a curious tower rebuilt in modern times from which, in centuries past, the priest would conjure away hailstorms to save the harvest, and which now offers wide views over the endless wheatlands.
Where it is
From Valladolid, sixty-four kilometres of straight roads across the plain lead to Cuenca de Campos, which also stands on the pilgrim road from Madrid to Santiago as it crosses the Tierra de Campos.