Santervas de Campos: birthplace of Ponce de Leon in the Tierra de Campos

On a gentle slope above the river Valderaduey, in the far north of Valladolid province where the plains of the Tierra de Campos run towards Leon and Palencia, the small village of Santervas de Campos has barely a hundred inhabitants. Yet its name is known across the Atlantic, for this is the birthplace of one of the great figures of the age of discovery.

The man who named Florida

Juan Ponce de Leon, born here in the 15th century, became the conqueror and first governor of Puerto Rico and, in 1513, the European discoverer of Florida. Visitors from Puerto Rico and the United States make the pilgrimage to his home village, where a museum set in the cellar of a 17th-century convent tells his story and a statue faces the church where he is said to have been baptised. A second son of the village, Francisco de Villagra, went on to govern Chile.

A primitive brick Romanesque

The church of San Gervasio y San Protasio grew from a monastery founded around the 10th century to assist pilgrims, and its splendid triple apse of brick, dating from the late 12th century, is considered one of the earliest examples of Romanesque in Castile, combining stone and Mudejar brickwork. The village still lies on the Madrid branch of the Camino de Santiago, in a land famous for its lentils.

Getting there

Santervas de Campos is around seventy-five kilometres north-west of Valladolid, a short drive from Sahagun and its great pilgrim road.