Palacio de los Duques de Medinaceli | JBinnacle

For the last few years, I’ve tried to do (or visit) something cool on my birthday, especially when it fell on a long weekend. In 2024 I could not plan anything big despite the long weekend,. Instead, I broke it off into a small outing with my sibling and a little road trip. There are a couple of places not too far away that I wanted to see, but the roads are not so great. One of my parents is keen on driving anyway, so they were happy to oblige, and I could get away with not driving the curves myself.

Our first stop was the Cistercian monastery Monasterio de Santa María de Huerta. The Order of Cistercians are a Catholic religious order. A group of Benedictine monks founded the new order in 1098, as they wanted to strictly adhere to Rule of St. Benedict, and felt that the other had “relaxed” too much. Cistercian monks are credited with creating very “pure” churches as they believed that ornamentation was superfluous and distracting from prayer.

The monastery is located in the village of Santa María de Huerta, which actually grew around its walls at the side of Jalón River. The building dates back from 1162, though the order had been in Spain for two decades at the time. Most of the building was erected halfway between Romanesque and Gothic styles, with some add-ons from more recent times, mostly the Herrerian cloister and a Baroque altarpiece – which distorts a little the idea of the “pure Cistercian lines” and no extra decoration. But then again, I am not a fan of Baroque decoration.

Entry is from the side of the church to the Gothic cloister Claustro de los Caballeros, around which all the dependences can be accessed. The first one is the church, the first area to be built. There are still some of the original paintings, and a baroque organ. The monks’ refectory is the most important room, built from 1215. It has large pointed-arched windows which allow light to come in, and it is communicated with the kitchen. There is a second refectory, more Romanesque, for the lay brothers who took religious vows but were not actual monks. The last cloister, in the Herrerian style, is severe and impressive. As we were leaving, there was a black out, not sure what that could have meant…

Santa María de Huerta Monastery

We went back to the car and we drove towards the town of Medinaceli, which has a couple of monuments I wanted to see. Reputed for dating back to Roman times, it has a free-standing arch Arco Romano de Medinaceli, the only one in Spain with three arches. It is a triumphal arch built in reddish sandstone during the first century, at an altitude of 1200 m, where it rains, snows, and so. It feels like a miracle that a small structure (around 13 metres long, eight metres high and two metres wide) has withstood two thousand years.

Medinaceli: Roman triumphal arch

We saw the collegiate church Colegiata de Santa María de la Asunción, built in a late Gothic style. Artistically, the most important item is the iron grating in front of the altar. Religiously, there is a figure of Christ, which is called Cristo de Medinaceli, a wooden sculpture from the 16th century (though the most famous sculpture with that name is in Madrid). It was a little underwhelming, and most of the sculptures were not pretty.

Medinaceli: Collegiate Church

Afterwards we visited the main square of the village Plaza Mayor de Medinaceli. To one side stands a 16th-century building called La Alhóndiga, current town hall and former prison, with rounded arches on the ground floor and a balcony all along the façade on the first floor.

16th Century commercial building turned into town hall

To another side, the palace of the former dukes Palacio de los Duques de Medinaceli, which was saved from the ruin turning it into a semi-private art gallery. Inside, the most important part is the Roman mosaic. The palace was built around 1430, and today only the Renaissance yard stays undisturbed. I am not a big fan of modern art, so I just can say that some of it was colourful and pretty. The entry ticket included entrance to a rural-house-turned-erotic-art-exhibition which… was weird. The whole house was painted pink, and the works were neither interesting and nor felt artistic at all. So 10 bucks to in the end see a Roman mosaic was a bit steep.

Medinaceli Duchate Palace

We decided not to stay in town for lunch, but – almost in a bit of a joke – we drove off to have lunch at what is probably the most iconic roadside restaurant in the centre of Spain – Área 103, a brasserie that is over 125 years old. It includes a small hermit-church built for truckers, Capilla de los Conductores.

Drivers' chapel, Area 103

It might have not been a glamorous birthday, but hey, along with the escapade on Tuesday, I guess I spent it doing what I like – discovering new things.

When I went to the waterfalls of the Aljibe I drove past a little village I had never heard of before – Tamajón, and a side sign reading “Pequeña Ciudad Encantada de Tamajón”. The term “Cuidad Encantada”, meaning Enchanted or Magic City, is used in Spanish to refer to karst formations. Karst is the name of a particular topography, created by the dissolution and chemical weathering of soluble rocks, chiefly but not just limestone.

The particular Spanish karst landscapes were formed by precipitation of salts – calcium carbonate – in the quiet waters of the Tethys Ocean during the Mesozoic Era (251-66 million years ago). Plate tectonics made central Spanish arise during the Cretaceous (the later subdivision of the Mesozoic, 140-66 million years ago) emerge, and the calcium carbonate became exposed to the elements, which started the erosion process. The most famous karst landscape in Spain is the Ciudad Encantada near Cuenca, which I guess spread the name.

Tamajón has a short hiking route around its karst formation, and while it is true that they are on the relatively smaller size, there are different shapes. I started my hiking route at the Ermita de la Virgen de los Enebrales, hermitage church dedicated to the Virgin of the Juniper Forest – the current building was reformed in the Renaissance style, thought the actual dates are shaky.

I started on the hiking route from the hermitage, along the road, and there were no markings there, so I kind of winged it for a while. After I took the first turn and started going up the rocks, I found the painting marking the routes – I had a handmade map because someone had shared it online, so I just went along it, and when I finished I redid about a fourth of it to take a detour to the other side of the road. There are cracks, arches, caves, cavities and capricious forms. I spent about an hour and a half walking around almost completely alone, which was awesome.

On my way back I stopped by the Church of the Assumption Iglesia de la Asunción, also a Romanesque – Renaissance mixture. The porch is typical of Romanesque churches in the Camino de Santiago (St. James’ Way), to shelter pilgrims.

As it was still early and I was relatively close, instead of driving home I headed off to another village called Cogolludo. I parked the car at the edge of the village and walked towards the main square, where there is a famous Renaissance palace Palacio de los Duques de Medinaceli. It is considered the first Renaissance Palace built in Spain, and it is reported to have been finished in 1492. The palace was designed by Lorenzo Vázquez de Segovia, with exquisite decoration, and the blaring lack of towers, which were very popular at the time. If I’m ever in the area again I might want to try to see the interior, which is only open in the guided visits.

The Palace stands in the main square Plaza Mayor which has a typical Castilian arcade with stone columns (unfortunately workers, sun and cars made it hard to take a good picture of it).

Cogolludo has two churches, Iglesia de Santa María de los Remedios (Our Lady of Remedies) and Iglesia de San Pedro (Saint Peter), both dating from the 16th century, but both completely closed down.

Finally, there are also the ruins of the Medieval Castle Castillo de Cogolludo, but there was not much incentive to climb up. All in all, it was a short but interesting morning – though I glad I teamed the two visits up, going to Cogolludo on its own would have not felt productive.