To the south of Salamanca, on an area of 482 km2, the Sierra de Francia Wine Route unfolds, supported by the Association for Comprehensive Rural Development of the Sierras de Salamanca (ADRISS). It is a territory made up of 79 municipalities, six of them historical-artistic ensembles, distributed among their own Sierra de Francia, Sierra de Béjar and Entresierras in an area also known as ‘Las Hurdes Castellanas’. The autochthonous rufete grape grows there, cultivated for centuries on terraces reclaimed from the mountain, along with extensive extensive livestock farming.
the wine route
Mogarraz, Miranda del Castañar or San Martín del Castañar are the three best-known jewels on this journey through their roots in the land and tradition. The cult of wine can be perceived in its seven wineries, from the most attractive such as Cámbrico, with impressive views of Miranda from its hundred-year-old vineyards, to the smallest -Don Celestino- with an entrepreneur, Celestino García, who abandoned his job in the pork industry to take care of their vineyards. The headquarters of this wine route is in Villanueva del Condea charming town with its three ‘alleys’ that protected the defensive structure of the town and with its porticoed houses, witnesses of the old strength of this municipality.
The Sequeros Theater
Villanueva del Conde is one of the historical complexes of this corner of Salamanca, like Sequeros, head of the party since 1833 when it became the administrative and judicial center of the mountains. The Plaza del Altozano, an old bullfighting arena protected by its buildings with double balconies, the Plaza de Eloy Bullón, the church of San Sebastián and the sanctuary of the Virgen del Robledo constitute its tourist visiting poker, although Mauri, the dedicated mayor of this villa, shows us its hidden and most beloved jewel: the Leon Felipe Theater, from 1872, still in operation with 200 seats that “arrived from Lina Morgan’s Teatro La Latina when it was dismantled in Madrid”. In its stalls fit all the residents of the town.
Saint Stephen of the Sierra
The Embroidered Counters
In an effort to find original ideas to capture tourism in the mountains, San Esteban embodied in 2021 an idea that consisted of decorating with drawings and interpretations of the traditional Serrano Popular Embroidery the light meters of the town houses. José Ángel Poveda García, a local artist, was the promoter of the initiative, using the artistic drawing technique on wood, and has been followed by other residents who have managed to gather more than 50 different drawings on their facades, the detailed information of which is displayed at through a QR code. All of them are part of the Route of the Embroidered Counters that has charming corners such as the Corral del Cura or the Design and Innovation Laboratory on Hastial street. Even today the charro women continue to display these traditional embroideries in summer during the festivals of Christ and San Esteban.
Granite Theme Park, in Los Santos
The ‘Spanish Stonehenge’
Along the way, a new surprise arises in The Saints, another small municipality that wanted to pay tribute to stonemasonry and the granite industry by explaining its history, the construction of the Roman roads and the modern extraction of granite in an open-air park. In this Granite Theme Parkconverted into a dump in recent times, several sculptural assemblies of Kind Diegoamong which a reproduction of the famous English megalithic monument of Stonehenge stands out.
Montemayor Castle
The route can end in Montemayor del Rio, a strategic point of the cattle ranch and a key pass between the kingdoms of León and Castilla with Extremadura. The Cuerpo de Hombre river surrounds this town, which you have to ascend through its streets to reach its famous castle,