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Palencia
«Palencia tiene una hermosa catedral llamada La Bella Desconocida.»Palencia has a beautiful cathedral called The Beautiful Unknown.
Palencia stands on the bank of the Carrión, in the north of the Meseta, in an agricultural province of wheat. The first university in Spain was founded there in 1208, which lasted for a few decades, and the city preserves one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in the country, little known outside the region.
Did you know
A twenty-metre tall Christ.
Its imposing statue of the Cristo del Otero is over 20 metres high and is one of the tallest monuments in Spain.
How they talk in Palencia
«Palentino» is the demonym and «Bella Desconocida» is the nickname by which almost everyone identifies the cathedral. The Castilian is that of the centre-north, with strong agricultural vocabulary in the province.
Everyday life in Palencia
The «Bella Desconocida»
The cathedral is huge and almost unknown outside the province, and the people of Palencia call it that with a mixture of pride and resignation: it is visited without queues, always.
The «Calle Mayor» under the porticoes
The main street is arcaded and pedestrianised, and crosses the city from one end to the other: the walk is done there, and it is where the shops and bars are.
«Se pasea bajo los soportales.» — One walks under the porticoes.
The Canal de Castilla behind the city
The 18th-century canal for carrying grain is still full of water and has a towpath kilometres long: you can go there by bike, and it is very flat.
What to eat in Palencia
Lechazo asado
Suckling lamb in a wood-fired oven in an earthenware dish, with water and salt.
Menestra palentina
Vegetables from the garden stewed one by one and then put together, with ham and hard-boiled egg.
Sopa de ajo
Bread, garlic, paprika and broth, with an egg broken inside at the end.
Amarguillos
Bitter almond sweets, small and dry, that melt in your mouth.
Festivals in Palencia
Bautizo del Niño
2 September
At the end of the San Antolín festivals, the last child born in the city is «baptised» in the square, with wine instead of water.
Fiestas de San Antolín
the days before 2 September
You go down into the Visigothic crypt to drink water from the saint's well, and above, the peñas fill the Calle Mayor.
What to see in Palencia
Catedral de Palencia
One of the largest cathedrals in Spain, which almost no one visits: they call it «the beautiful unknown».
Cristo del Otero
One of the tallest statues of Christ in the world, twenty metres above the hill that dominates the city.
Iglesia de San Miguel
Gothic church with a crenellated tower, where according to tradition the Cid married Jimena.
Canal de Castilla
Two hundred kilometres of 18th-century canal, with the locks still in their place.
Where Palencia comes from
The first university in Spain
Pre-Roman era
Pallantia
City of the Vaccaei, then a Roman municipality on the bank of the Carrión.
1208
The General Study
Alfonso VIII founds the first university in Spain there, which will close after a few decades.
1520
The comuneros
The city is in the middle of the revolt of the comuneros against Charles V.
20th century → today
Palencia
Agricultural capital, with the automotive industry arriving in the seventies.
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