Frías and Oña
During the time I was living on the north of Spain, I have time to visit, on the week-ends, the roots of the Castilian kingdom. Castille means that: land of castles. But not only are castles in Castille; there are also fabulous and very ancient villages. Examples: Ponferrada, Lerma, Carrión de los Condes. I remember specially one of the trips, and my detour to the way to Bilbao to two special villages: Oña and Frías.
Frías is an old and paved villa, situated on the north of the province of Burgos. It has an old story, back to the Paleolithic age. But the nice and charm things of this village are its strait streets, plain of stone houses. In the middle of the village there is the monastery of San Salvador. It is extremely wonderful to dive into this monastery. Get into it and find the sepulchers of wood of the first kings of Castille (in fact, there were not kings) and their children is something special. It is unique in Spain: usually these sepulchers are made of stone. But you can also visit the cloister, and listen to the silence. Then walking down the streets and stop on any bar to have some refreshments is a must.
More on the north of Spain there is another beautiful village: Frías. While Oña is a nice village to walk on, Frías is very different. Surrounded by the walls of the castle, Frías is having its 8th century. It is a real pleasure to walk by its paved streets (good exercise!), to climbe to the castle, some of its walls destroyed by the French during the Napoleon invasion of Spain. And from the top of the walls, to look to the roman (or medieval?) bridge over the Ebro river. There are good places to eat, whether inside the village, or on the nearby.
Two beautiful jewels to discover inside Castille. Inside Spain.
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The websites of the two villages are: www.ayuntamientoona.com for Oña; www.ciudaddefrias.com for Frías (both only on Spanish). And also the website of Castilla y León: www.jcyl.es
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