Calzada del Coto (León) (0)

Did you know that... Calzada del Coto

It is located in the centre of the Duero plateau, forming part of the Páramo leones. The Romans divided Hispania in two great regions the Citerior and the Ulterior, later they became Bética, Tarraconensis and Lusitania. Calzada del Coto would form part of the Citerior, then Tarraconensis and when they created the Gallaecia Calzada del Coto became part of it for some time. It is very possible that settlers and Roman families settled there, given the proximity to the roads that linked it with the rest of the great Roman cities. In the place where Calzada del Coto is located today, there is evidence in documents, there were several villas, but the one that is most related to the origin of the town is Villa Zacarías and this name along with Calzada del Coto were used simultaneously to refer to the locality.

A little more history

In the tenth century King Alfonso III donated the Villa Zacarias to the Monastery of San Facundo, which meant that its inhabitants were subjected for centuries to the economic regime marked by the monastery. Calzada del Coto therefore refers in its name to the Roman road that surrounds it, Calzada, and Coto for its economic dependence to which it was subject after its donation to the monastery. Today Calzada del Coto is a small and quiet village that lives very closely the life of the Way of Saint James.

To discover What to see in Calzada del Coto?

In the centre of Calzada del Coto stands its parish church dedicated to San Esteban, from the 17th century, and of course, built of brick and tapial, it has a solid tower that was extended to the heights in the middle of the 20th century on the initiative of a religious from the village. The church has a Baroque altarpiece from the 18th century and on the outskirts of the town you can visit a simple and small hermitage dedicated to San Roque, patron saint of the village.

Festivities

Calzada del Coto celebrates its patron saint festivities in mid-August in honour of San Roque. In these celebrations one of the most traditional acts stars the young people of the town, who organize and participate in the no less traditional Carriage of the Bonfire.

Traditions

It was traditional that when a church was built it would be placed under the protection of the saint who sounded most at the time or of whom relics might come from various parts. Saint Stephen has been considered a protomartyr, one of the first Christian martyrs, is a very popular saint whose worship is widespread throughout the world and to whom many temples have been dedicated. For all these reasons, it is believed that the first church in the village, dedicated to Saint Stephen as well as the present one, was probably located in the same place as this one, since it seems to be the oldest part of the village and that it would be a humble construction that little by little underwent rehabilitations and therefore the mixture of styles and forms that have come to our days.

Curiosities

The section of the Jacobean route that passes through here coincides with the Roman road and is nicknamed the Pilgrim's Way. Shortly afterwards it runs through a grove called Valdelocajos, which was owned by the Abbey of Sahagún until the disentailment and which the monks called their Coto.

The Legend

Popular history tells that, in the area, one of the industries that had a certain boom was the cooperage and it is heard that in Calzada was manufactured, on behalf of the cillero of the monastery of Sahagún, who was the monk who controlled and guarded the pantry of the monastery, a vat so large that it was considered the largest ever in all Christianity.