Puntos de Interés
Municipality
Sotragero
Sotragero is a municipality in the province of Burgos, belonging to the comarca of Alfoz de Burgos, with a population of around 273 inhabitants. Its name derives from the Latin words "sotra" and "gragero", which means inhabited by rooks.
The first records of this town date back to the 9th century, during the period of the Christian conquest and colonisation of the River Ubierna, when it was militarily and administratively dependent on Alfoz de Burgos. It should be noted that, according to documents from 1094, the lordship of Sotragero was held by don Álvar Fáñez, an essential captain for Alfonso VI and nephew of the Cid.
In the 13th century, Sotragero became the heart of the economic activity in the area with the arrival of some important social and church figures such as don Pedro Sarracín, founder and rector of the renowned Hospital de San Lucas for the poor and pilgrims, which was located in Burgos. Thanks to its proximity to the city of Burgos, in the first decade of the 21st century it recovered the population that it had been losing since the 1970s, thus becoming a residential town for people working in Burgos. It reached a maximum population of 302 registered inhabitants in 2013. Historically, the inhabitants of this municipality have been mainly involved in tillage, with some sheep production.
The wide, landscaped streets of this municipality confer on it the character of a residential area in which there are also attractive tourist elements. The most outstanding street is Calle de las Ventas, which leads to the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción. This Renaissance-style building has a single nave and its most remarkable features are its rose window and a bell gable crowned with spheres. Its Plateresque doorway has a segmental arch. Inside the church there is an attractive baroque altarpiece and the tomb of the knight Pedro Porres, with a recumbent statue, from the 16th century.
At the end of Calle de San Roque, on the hill at the top of a steep path, we find the Shrine of San Roque, a very simple chapel with a cross on its roof. Sotragero celebrates the traditional Easter processions. On Good Friday, the different elements to be carried in the procession are auctioned off: the figure of Christ, lanterns and the green cross. During the event, the falls of Christ are reenacted and the Calvary is sung. The Procession of the Encounter takes place on Easter Sunday, where the villagers kiss the figures before removing the veil that the Virgin wears as a sign of mourning. On this day, the altar boys take up collections in the houses.
Other important festivities in the municipality are those of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción and San Roque, held on 15 and 16 August respectively, as well as La Cruz, on 3 May.
The star ingredient of the local gastronomy is undoubtedly Burgos black pudding, "smooth, tasty and spicy", a product which is traditionally associated with the “matanza del cerdo” or pig slaughter, a deep-rooted tradition in the vast majority of houses in the province of Burgos. It is hard to visit the Burgos region and not try this delicious blood sausage which, thanks to the new packaging methods, can be taken home as the perfect gift for friends.
Another traditional product of the area is Burgos “queso fresco” or unripened cheese, an exquisite, soft cheese with an intense white colour, originally from Briviesca, a town with a large herd of Churra breed sheep. The great importance and growing consumption and recognition of this product have spread beyond the province and it is today one of the best known, most appreciated and most imitated cheeses in Europe.
