The city of Burgos is shown to the visitors as a monumental and historical city, with a huge artistic and landscape appeal and a wide cultural and leisure time offer. From its origin, Burgos has been the witness of important episodes whose marks have been expressed in a wide and impressive cultural and artistic patrimony.
Found in times of the Reconquest, the Earl Diego Porcelos arrives by order of the king from Asturias Alfonso III, on the banks of the Arlanzón in 884. The city would early become the capital of the county of Castile and the Royal Chamber in times of Fernando I. This first stage, full of military ups and downs and fights among kingdoms, brought into some epic heroes such as the Cid Campeador.
Its strategic and well communicated location made possible a fast increase of the population. It is the normal route if you want to go from the Castilian Plateau to the mountain passes in Cantabria. This fact, apart from the development to the Route to Santiago turns Burgos into one of the most important commercial and artistic centres. The merchants of the city created a rich bourgeoisie that together with the royal influence promote the construction of the main monuments (Cathedral, Royal Monastery of las Huelgas,Carthusian Monastery of Miraflores,Churches as San Gil and San Nicolás).
In times of the Catholic Monarchs,Burgos reaches its greatest economic splendour but after that the economy and the population started to decline. The arriving of the Enlightenment and the start of the first industries produce changes in all fields even in the urban development.
In the 20th century, the privileged geographic location of Burgos,junction of national and international communications and the progressive increase of the population allow the city to become the capital of the province and an important administrative centre.
Nowadays Burgos is a modern, warm and cosmopolitan city that keeps cultural and artistic values, World Heritage Site by the UNESCO (Cathedral, the Route to Santiago and the Atapuerca archaeological sites). It is also a lively city with plenty of projects (Museum of Human Evolution, Conferences Building, etc) and a wide cultural and leisure time offer to discover it in a few hours.
We invite you to enjoy it without any rush,discovering all its monuments,its promenades, its feasts, its past and its future. |
