Burgos travel guide

Background

Burgos is comfortably the oldest city in Europe, if you count the nearby cave-dwellers from Atapuerca, who were around over a million years ago. That aside, the city’s effective foundation was in the late ninth century, when it was resettled during the Reconquista. Further honours soon followed; it was named capital of Castilla y León as early as the 11th century.

The city’s position at the northern centre of the Castilian plain, near the coastal mountain passes, made it a crucial point for the export of goods. Burgos flourished, becoming a wealthy city of merchants and beasts of burden; in the 16th century its mule population often exceeded the human one, as bigger and bigger convoys of wool made their way over the mountains and by ship to Flanders.

The Consulado de Burgos, a powerful guild-like body, was created to administer trade, and succeeded in establishing a virtual monopoly; Burgos became one of three great 16th-century Spanish trading cities, along with Sevilla and Medina del Campo. The strife in Flanders hit the city hard, though, and other towns broke into the market. Burgos’ population declined by 75% in the first half of the 17th century, and the city lapsed into the role of genteel provincial capital, apart from a brief and bloody interlude:during the Civil War the Nationalist junta was established here; the city had shown its credentials with a series of atrocities committed on Republicans after the rising.

Best time to visit

Burgos has a fairly unpleasant climate with short hot summers and long cold winters (it often snows) punctuated by the biting wind that ‘won’t blow out a candle but will kill a man’. The most moderate weather will be found in May, June and September.

Getting around

As usual, the old centre is fairly compact, but you may want to use the local bus service to access a couple of the outlying monasteries and the campsite.

Ins and outs

Getting there

Burgos is roughly in the centre of Northern Spain and easily accessed from most parts of the country by bus or train. There are regular services from Madrid and the Basque country as well as Santander and all Castilian towns.

Burgos

Burgos is a transport hub, with plenty of trains and buses for all parts of the country.

Bus

The bus station is handily close to town, on C Miranda just across the Puente de Santa María. All buses run less often on Sun.

Within the province buses run to Aranda de Duero 6-7 a day (1 hr 15 mins, €7.65), Miranda 3 a day, 0645, 1315, 2030, Santo Domingo de Silos 1 a day, 1730 Mon-Thu, 1830 Fri, 1400 Sat, none on Sun, Roa 1 a day Mon-Fri, 1800 (1 hr 30 mins), Sasamón 1 a day, 1830, none on Sun, Castrojeriz 2 a day, 1445, 1830, Oña 3 a day, 0645, 1300, 1830.

Further afield, there are services to Madrid hourly (2 hrs 45 mins, €16.18), Bilbao 9 a day (2 hrs, €11.53), León 4 a day (2hrs, €13.74), Santander 3-5 a day (2 hrs 45 mins, €11.12), Logroño 7 a day (2 hrs), Valladolid 5 a day (2 hrs, €8.42), and Zaragoza 4 a day (4 hrs, via Logroño).

Trains

Trains stop a 5-min walk west of the bus station. There are several trains daily to Madrid (2½-4½ hours, €24-39) via Aranda, 4 west to León via Palencia (2 hrs, €19.40), and services east to Vitoria, Logroño, San Sebastián and Zaragoza. You can also buy tickets at a central booking office at C de la Moneda 19.

Internet

Locutorio Capitanía, C San Lorenzo 28, cheap calls and internet; Cabaret, C La Puebla s/n, a cool bar with internet access Mon-Thu 1600-0200, Fri and Sat 1600-0400, Sun 1700-0200.

Post office

Just across the river from the old town on Plaza Conde de Castro.