Valladolid, the capital of the Castilla y León region, has a city centre of restored squares and gleaming churches, including a series of excellent art museums, one of which holds the finest collection of religious sculpture anywhere in Spain. Valladolid is an easy city to like – whether it’s the pretty shaded gardens of the Campo Grande, or the student bars lined up under the shadow of a majestic Gothic church. The best time to get a sense of the city’s historic traditions is Semana Santa (Holy Week), when Valladolid is host to some of the most extravagant and solemn processions in Spain.

Outside the city, there are easy side-trips to the handsome small towns of Tordesillas and Medina del Campo, both now on the quiet and sleepy side but, like Valladolid, also boasting significant histories.

Travel

The airport is located in Villanubla, Valladolid Airport has connections with Barcelona, Málaga, and Canary Islands. Valladolid is also integrated into the Spanish high-speed network AVE. There are also so many highways that connects the city with the rest of Spain. It is possible to get fast even to the south of Spain in around six hours through the new highway, Autovía Ruta de la Plata, or Autovía A-66. It is free, like almost all highways in Spain.

During the time of Moorish rule in Spain the Christian kings moved the population of this region north into more easily defended areas, and deliberately created a no man's land as a buffer zone against further Moorish conquests. The area was captured from the Moors in the 10th century, and Valladolid was a village until King Alfonso VI of León and Castile donated it to Count Pedro Ansúrez in 1072. He built a palace (now lost) for himself and his wife, Countess Eylo, the Collegiate of St. Mary and the La Antigua churches.

In 1506 Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid in a house that is now a Museum dedicated to him. It was made the capital of the kingdom again between 1601 and 1606 by Philip III. The city was again damaged by a flood of the rivers Pisuerga and Esgueva.

Despite the damage to the old city by the 1960s economic boom, it still boasts a few architectural manifestations of its former glory. Some monuments include the unfinished cathedral, the Plaza Mayor (Main Square), the National Sculpture Museum, and the Faculty of Law of the University of Valladolid, whose façade is one of the few surviving works by Narciso Tomei.