Tierra de Campos

An election of the history
The first inhabitants of the Land of the Fields were Vacceus, later were occupied by the Romans, and at a later time with Goths, acquiring then the denomination of Gothic Lands (Campi Gothorum), wherefrom it derives its actual name.

In the Moslem period it used to be a frontier desert between the Christians to the north and the Muslims to the south and, in the middle of the IX-th century it begun to be repopulated by Ordoño I of Asturias. Border between León and Castile during the late Middle Ages. The coexistence of these three cultures did not pass unnoticed in the region, emphasizing principally the Moorish art.

The first reference about Land of the Fields was made in the chronicles of Alfonso X The Wise. In the XIII-th century, with Fernando III The Saint, the king of Leon, the region began to acquire a major leading role since this king unified the kingdoms of Leon and Castile. Moreover, this monarch granted to the Land of the Fields and, in particular to Villalón of the Fields, the permission to celebrate the first European market of wool. With these regulatory requirements the principal bank head offices were located.

In the Medieval times and Renaissance the clayish soils of this region were very suitable for the cultivation of the cereals, that produced its splendour. The great monuments date from this epoch that can be seen in some of its most important villages.®