El círculo del pueblo

The route

1. 1
   Plaza de la Constitución and Town Hall

   The heart of the village, where the pig slaughter (matanza) once took place and where the circle begins. Look around you: adobe, brick and tile are the clay of this land.

2. 2
   Church of Our Lady of the Assumption

   Six hundred years in a single building: a Mudéjar arcade, a bell gable with a hidden bell, and a granite doorway.

3. 3
   La casa de Vitora · Calle Larga

   The Vitora house was once a farmhouse, an inn, a shop, a bar and a dance hall in its attic. Its façade still has the iron rings where travellers tied their mules. Private house: enjoy it from the street.

4. 4
   The Pozo Bueno

   Here stood the well that gave the village its name: five metres of Mudéjar brick with a granite rim. It disappeared in 1982, and today a smaller well marks its place. They say it called out to anyone who leaned over it too far.

5. 5
   La Laguna

   Where livestock once drank, and where a wayside shrine (humilladero) was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. Today, ducks swim here.

6. 6
   La Fuente de Bernuy

   At the entrance to the village, next to the lagoon, this fountain was built to supply water to villagers and livestock. Its troughs are still used today as a drinking place for sheep. Its potability hasn't been confirmed, not recommended for drinking.

7. 7
   Santuario de la Vera Cruz

   On the way out of the village, on the road to Bercial, stands the only shrine still standing: whitewashed, with an iron door topped by a cross, scented by rosemary, a rose bush and a lilac. It holds a 14th- or 15th-century Gothic Christ, whose cloth skirt the village's women still sew. From here, we head back into the village along Calle Medina. If you still have the energy, continue 500 metres along the road to Bercial and take the path to the right to El Tejar, the spring where the women used to wash clothes. A round trip of about 20 extra minutes.

8. 8
   La Bodega

   Two old cart wheels rest over the zarceras, the vents of a wine cellar dug beneath the house. Down there, the village's wine was kept cool all year round. Private house: enjoy it from the street.

9. 9
   La Botica

   Facing the wine cellar, a granite doorway bears the carved date 1728 and the name of whoever commissioned it. This is where the village pharmacy (botica) once stood. Take a look too at the coats of arms on the manor houses along this street. Private house: enjoy it from the street.

10. 10
    La Casona Real

    Next to the square, a manor house with a legend: they say it belonged to a cousin of Isabella I of Castile and that it was once a hospital, cared for by nuns. That's why the village calls it «the nuns' house».

And back in the square, close the circle with something cold at the village bar.

Before you go

• ·Respect the houses: many stops are private homes. Enjoy them from the street.
• ·Don't lean over wells or cellars: look, but don't get too close.
• ·In summer, set out early or in the late afternoon — there's little shade.