If somehow your trip to anywhere has brought you to this beautiful town of Burgos, you must know that this is a historical scenery: this is the battlefield where the Anglo-Spanish army was defeated in the autumn of 1808 by some Napoleonic troops, who were already more than worn out after the Bailen, Zaragoza and some other episodes that had left them with a sour taste.
Also, in the noble Villa of Espinosa de Los Monteros, you won’t be short of places to visit. There are churches such as the Renaissance one of Santa Cecilia, and the old and rebuilt one of San Nicolas or Nuestra Señora de Berrueza, from the eighteenth century. There is also a string of towers, palaces and manor houses to see, if anything in this place, you can breathe history everywhere you go.
So, to start with, let us tell you where the name of this place comes from.
It was the times of the Reconquest when Sancho Garcia, Count of Castile, wanted to reward one of his men for saving him from a betrayal in which even the Count’s own mother was involved. The thing is that Sancho was rescued thanks to the faithful squire, a young man from Espinosa.
It was exactly the year 1006, and the nobleman decided that, henceforth, that squire would guard his dreams, and in the centuries that were to come, the dreams of the kings of Castile would be veiled by the children of this village of Burgos. Like that the Monteros de Espinosa Corps was created, to which only the noblemen from the villa could belong, and whom were in charge of guarding the royal bedroom at night.
This Guard, which seems so medieval, because it is, remained alive until the proclamation of the Second Republic, in 1931.
You should also know that you are one step away from the karst landscape of Ojo Guareña and the amazing stone arch of Puentedey. According to some, carved by nothing less than the finger of God. Other more recent studies point to the possibility that the arch is the work of the river which has perforated the rock with a great deal of patience and time. In any case, to this whim of nature or of divinity, we have dedicated an audio-guide for it alone.