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Canal de Castilla | |
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Location | Castile and León (Burgos, Palencia, Valladolid) |
Country | Spain |
Coordinates | 41°44′58″N4°38′49″W / 41.749444°N 4.646943°W |
Specifications | |
Length | 207 km (129 miles) |
History | |
Construction began | 1753 |
Date of first use | December 14, 1849 |
Date completed | 1849 |
The Canal of Castile (Canal de Castilla in Spanish) is a canal in the north of Spain. Constructed between the last half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, it was conceived to facilitate the transportation of wheat from Castille to the ports in the Bay of Biscay for export. The canal runs 207 km through the provinces of Burgos, Palencia and Valladolid, in the Autonomous Community of Castile and León.
The canal was mostly used between 1850 and 1870 but competition with railways saw its use change to irrigation and for powering mills, in the latter part of the 19th century. Navigation ceased in 1959 with the closure of the locks.
Parts of the canal are still in use, and although navigation is limited to tourism, the canal is used to irrigate 23,000 hectares in 48 municipalities. [1] The canal is now protected by a heritage listing, having been declared Bien de interés cultural in 1991.
The canal was planned by the Marques de la Ensenada during Fernando VI's reign in the late 18th century. [1] Its purpose was to boost trade by allowing Tierra de Campos' wheat grain production to be transported from Castile to the northern harbour of Santander and to other markets from there; vice versa, the canal was also meant to facilitate the inflow of products from the Spanish colonies into Castile. [1]
The Spanish War of Independence, budgetary constraints and the difficult passage through the Cantabrian Mountains hampered and eventually reduced the initial plan of a 400 km canal, so the canal never reached the Bay of Biscay as initially planned. [1] Overall, its construction took almost 100 years (from 1753 to 1849) and was eventually halted when railroads were built in northern Spain in the nineteenth century, making the project redundant. [1]
The canal was most used during the 1850-1870 period, when up to 400 barges plied the canal towed by beasts of burden. [1] Later on, the canal evolved into the spine of a huge irrigation system due to its relative inefficiency and slowliness vs. railfreight as a means of transport. The locks on the canal were decommissioned in the twentieth century.
The canal has the form of an inverted 'Y' in layout, with two southern branches beginning in (Valladolid and Medina de Rioseco (the Southern Branch and Campos Branch respectively, joining into a single canal (the Northern Branch) at the town of Alar del Rey (Palencia) stretching 207 km (129 mi).
There is a network of locks, flour mills, warehouses, and docks of historical interest and the whole canal is popular for hiking.
The countryside crossed by the canal is of interest for its birdlife. In the Tierra de Campos two large Special Protection Areas (La Nava-Campos Norte and La Nava-Campos Sur) have been designated. These are notable for birds such as great bustards ( Otis tarda ), residents of dryland farming areas (sometimes described as "steppes") which are typical of the region. The canal, on the other hand, provides valuable habitats for wetland birds such as the bittern ( Botaurus stellaris ).
The canal lends its name to two Sites of Community Importance alongside the watercourse:
In 2006-10 the European Union's Life Programme funded restoration of wetlands in the province of Palencia with the aim of improving the canal's contribution to biodiversity. Birds of interest to the project include:
The improvements included facilities for bird-watching: two observatories were positioned close to two of the wetlands with the greatest ornithological interest along the Canal of Castile: the Venta de Valdemudo (Becerril de Campos) and the Valdemorco (Boadilla del Camino) lagoons. These observatories complemented one already existing (in Toja de las Ribas, Ribas de Campos) before the LIFE project. [5]
Ordered North to South, East to West.
Castile or Castille is a territory of imprecise limits located in Spain. The use of the concept of Castile relies on the assimilation of a 19th-century determinist geographical notion, that of Castile as Spain's centro mesetario with a long-gone historical entity of diachronically variable territorial extension.
Castile and León is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a population density below 30/km2. While a capital has not been explicitly declared, the seats of the executive and legislative powers are set in Valladolid by law, and for all purposes that city serves as the de facto regional capital.
Valladolid is a province of northwest Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It has a population of 521,333 people in a total of 225 municipalities, an area of 8,110 km2 (3,130 sq mi) and a population density of 64.27 people per km2.
Ferdinand IV of Castile called the Summoned, was King of Castile and León from 1295 until his death.
Henry II, called Henry of Trastámara or the Fratricidal, was the first King of Castile and León from the House of Trastámara. He became king in 1369 by defeating his half-brother Peter the Cruel, after numerous rebellions and battles. As king he was involved in the Fernandine Wars and the Hundred Years' War.
The Lagunas de Ruidera are a group of small lakes in the Campo de Montiel, Castilla-La Mancha, between Albacete Province, and Ciudad Real Province, Spain. Most of the lakes are interconnected and their total water amount may reach 23.06 hm3, which is considerable by the standards of other lakes in the Iberian Peninsula.
Old Castile is a historic region of Spain, which had different definitions along the centuries. Its extension was formally defined in the 1833 territorial division of Spain as the sum of the following provinces: Santander, Burgos, Logroño, Soria, Segovia, Ávila, Valladolid and Palencia. As the rest of regions in that division, Old Castile never had any special administrative agency; only the individual provinces had their own management.
The Trabancos is a river in Spain that flows between the Zapardiel and the Guareña rivers, and is a tributary of the Duero river. The source of the Trabancos is in Moraña, a region in the north of the province of Ávila, near Blascomillán. The Trabancos is at an elevation of approximately 1,100 metres (3,600 ft), is approximately 85 kilometres (53 mi) long and, although its river bed is stable, only has a constant water flow during and immediately after torrential rains.
Castile, Castille or Castilla may refer to:
Osorno la Mayor is a municipio in Palencia province, Castile and León, Spain. The Chilean city of Osorno and Osorno Province (Chile) are named after this place.
Boada de Campos is a municipality located in the province of Palencia, Castile and León, Spain. It is in the Tierra de Campos.
Ribas de Campos is a municipality located in the province of Palencia, Castile and León, Spain. It is on the course of the Canal de Castilla.
The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Antoninus is a Roman Catholic church located in Palencia, Spain. It is dedicated to Saint Antoninus of Pamiers.
Tierra de Campos is a large historical and natural region or greater comarca that straddles the provinces of León, Zamora, Valladolid and Palencia, in Castile and León, Spain. It is a vast, desolate plain with practically no relief, except for some wide undulations of the terrain.
The House of Haro was one of the most powerful families of Castile during the Middle Ages, which strongly supported the expansionist policies of Alfonso VI of Castile. As a reward, Íñigo López was named the first Lord of Biscay.
John of Castile, called the "el de Tarifa" was an infante of Castile and León. He was engaged in a decades-long fight for control over the Lordship of Biscay with Diego López V de Haro, the uncle of his wife.
The Regionalist Unity of Castile and León is a "regionalist, democratic, modern and innovative political party that, focusing on the principles of freedom, justice and solidarity, assumes the uncompromising defense of the legitimate interests of Castile and León."
The Monastery of Santa Cruz de Ribas, also called Santa Cruz de la Zarza, is a semi-ruined Spanish monastery of the Premonstratensian order. Located in the low valley of the Carrión River, it is situated between Ribas de Campos and Monzón de Campos, in the region of Tierra de Campos in Province of Palencia, Castile and León. The building was constructed in a transitional style between Romanesque and Gothic. The building is indexed in the Spanish heritage register of Bien de Interés Cultural under the reference RI-51-0000811.
The 2007 vole plague originated in early summer 2006 in the province of Palencia, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. By the summer of 2007, rodent populations had severely devastated crops in the plateau fields. Following a summer marked by significant agricultural losses, the density of voles decreased by September 2007, leading to the institutional declaration that the plague was over. However, vole populations remained abundant in the months that followed. It was only the winter frosts and low temperatures in November and December that reduced their numbers to normal levels.
The Palencia mining basin is a Spanish coal mining area located on the southern slope of the Cantabrian mountain range. It owes its name to its location, in the north of the province of Palencia, in the region of Montaña Palentina. Its main exploitations are black coal and anthracite.
A great site describing many points of interest and with a large number of photos of docks, locks and bridges