Valladolid

Valladolid is home to one of Europe's finest sculpture museums; the best reason to visit the city. Enjoying Valladolid itself can seem like hard work. Ugly modern development and congested roads have carved up this historic town so that its fine monuments can rarely be appreciated to the full. Instead of meandering leisurely between great churches and museums, it is advisable to target a particular site and head straight for it. Valladolid is a tricky town to negotiate and it is easy to lose your way.

Valladolid has recently been confirmed the capital of Castile a distinction it has held off and on down the centuries as home to the Castilian court and much of the nobility. The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, that landmark in Spanish history, took place here, and Philip III also lived here for a while. During the 16th century it was the most aristocratic city in Castile, and even to this day is considered the place where the purest Spanish is spoken. The city has long been an episcopal See: the Holy Week celebrations here are famously solemn and impressive. Many fine, ancient church buildings remain and there is a handsome 16th century Plaza Mayor, yet, despite all this, Valladolid lacks any really satisfying historic centre.

GETTING YOUR BEARINGS

On arrival, Plaza Zorrilla makes a good point from which to explore Valladolid. It is well signposted and serves as a linchpin between the old and the new city. The tourist office is here too, worth calling in to pick up a map. Calle de Santiago leads off Plaza Zorrilla, soon becoming pedestrianized, to the Plaza Mayor and the Ayuntamientio.

To find Plaza San Pablo and the sculpture museum, face the Ayuntamiento and find Calle Especeria Cabaderia, which runs at a tangent to its far right corner. Follow this lane, turn left down Calle Platerias, passing Iglesia de la Cruz, and continue straight ahead down Calle Felipe 11. To find the sculpture museum, face the facade of San Pablo and then follow the little lane down its right hand side.

To find Plaza de la Libertad, face the Ayuntamiento and find Calle Especeria Cabaderia, which runs at a tangent to its far right comer. Follow this lane, turn left down Calle Platerias, and then take the first right down Calle Cantarrana To find the Oriental Museum; Paseo del Campo Grande is a broad avenue that runs from Plaza de Zorrilla along the side of a wedge shaped park. Follow this avenue to Plaza de Colon and find Paseo de Jos Filipinos, off to the right, running along the bottom of the park. The museum is along here, housed in an 18th century Augustinian monastery.

Valladolid Attractions

The National Sculpture Museum

This outstanding museum will absorb sculpture vultures for hours. It is housed in San Grcgorio College, one of the finest monuments in Valladolid, built by Alonso of Burgos, confessor to Isabel the Catholic. The Isabelline Gothic facade is wholly arresting: covered in stone carving it manages to be both strangely rustic and disturbing. Clambering thickets full of chubby babies support a fabulously ornate heraldic shield; large folkloric figures, chained, bearded and covered in twirly body hair, flank the doorway. This remarkable entrance is almost certainly the work of Gil de Siloe. The fine plateresque courtyard inside is likewise exceptional, decked with tall spiral columns and heavily decorated arches.

The museum contains a superb collection of religious sculpture, chiefly large scale wood carving taken from Castilian church buildings. It includes pieces from the 13th to the 18th centuries, with an emphasis on the Renaissance and Baroque. The 16th century work is particularly fine, especially that of Alonso Berruguete, and can be inspected here at unusually close quarters. Rare subtleties are achieved in the modelling of wood as flesh and the fine gold paintwork of robes reaches the intensity of burnished metal. Three rooms are dedicated to Berruguete's work.

Look out for the overdemonstrative figures of Juan de Juni's "Burial of Christ" in Room XV, designed to create impact from afar, and for a busty and defiant "Mary Magdalene", a religious piece of dubious spiritual inspiration. In Room XIII a minor polychrome panel describes a particularly unsavoury narrative: a white nobleman is having a leg transplant, his "new" leg having been chopped off a black man who lies bleeding by his bedside. The noble seems pleased at the fit despite the mismatch of flesh.

Church of San Pablo

Heavy Isabelline Gothic decoration fills the facade of San Pablo, the 15th century church of a former Dominican monastery. Carved stone posts bearing lions and heraldic shields lend the approach further dignity. The disappointing interior was revamped in the 17th century.

The Cathedral

Monumental and imposing, the cathedral looms with all the cold severity that typifies the work of Juan de Herrera. It was Herrera who designed El Escorial for Philip 11, and the monarch commissioned the cathedral in Valladolid from him in 1580. Doubtless neither of them would have approved of the later additions by Alberto Churriguera, an architect with a far more flamboyant sense of grandeur. Carvings of St Peter and St Paul stand in small niches either side of the entrance, while above them monumental stone carvings of the four apostles strike swashbuckling poses. Inside, a powerful austerity proves a sombre setting for Juan de Juni's brilliant gilded altarpiece, dating from 1551.

Santa Maria la Antigua

This church is an odd combination of coot Gothic, with flying buttresses of white grey stone, and warm Romanesque, with a tall, square tower capped by a red tiled roof. Together they form a highly distinctive church.

Museo Oriental

(Paseo de los Filipines, 7. Tel 30 69 00. Entrance 300 pesetas, Open Monday Saturday 16.00 19.00, Sunday 10.00 14.00.) All manner of Chinese art is on display here, from fine porcelain and lacquerware to embroidery and watercolours, along with a collection of 18th century Spanish Filipino ivory work.

Cervantes's House Museum

(Calle Rastro, 7. Tel 3 0 88 10. Admission 300 pesetas. Open Tuesday Saturday 10 00 15.30, Sunday 10.00 15.00.) Cervantes lived in this house around 1605, at the height of his fame. At that time the place was a slum, not far from

the abattoir, and had a rowdy bar beneath it. The museum has been kitted out with furniture of the period along with maps, books, a painting of the Battle of Lepanto and one of Cervantes's manuscripts. It all makes for an interesting picture of how a 16th century noble might have lived, but it certainly does not reflect just how cramped and unsavoury life here would have been for Cervantes and his family and friends.

Places to Stay

Cheap to Moderate

Avenida HsR*, Acera Recoletos, 23: Tel: 22 19 17. This avenue runs i I alongside Paseo del Campo Grande, beside the park. Mino HsR*, Plaza Mayor, 9. Tel: 35 36 61. Greco HsR**, Calle Val, 2. Tel: 35 6152. Colon HsR**, Acera Recoletos, 22. Tel: 30 40 44. Paris HsR**, Especeria, 2. Tel: 35 83 01. Enara HR*, Plaza de Espana, 5. Tel: 30 03 11.

Smarter Options

Mozart HR* * * Menendez Pelayo, 7. Tel: 29 78 88. Lasa HR***, Acera de Recoletos, 21. Tel: 39 02 55.

Valladolid Hotels

Parque Hotel - García Morato, 17 - Valladolid 47007 - Spain Phone: 983220000 Fax: 983475029
Conde Ansurez Hotel - Avda. de Gijón, 100 - Valladolid 47009 - Spain Phone: 983015500 Fax: 983015501
Tryp Sofia Parquesol Hotel - Hernando de Acuña, 35 - Valladolid 47014 - Spain Phone: 983372893 Fax: 983377027
Lasa Hotel - Acera de Recoletos, 21 - Valladolid 47004 - Spain Phone: 983390255 Fax: 983302561
Catedral Hotel - Núñez de Arce, 11 - Valladolid 47002 - Spain Phone: 983298811 Fax: 983298911
El Nogal Hotel - Conde Ansurez, 10 - Valladolid 47003 - Spain Phone: 983340333 Fax: 983354965
Mozart Hotel - Menéndez Pelayo, 7 - Valladolid 47001 - Spain Phone: 983297777 Fax: 983292190
Felipe Iv Hotel - Gamazo, 16 - Valladolid 47004 - Spain Phone: 983307000 Fax: 983308687
Amadeus Hotel - Montero Calvo, 16-18 - Valladolid 47001 - Spain Phone: 983219444 Fax: 983219440
Olid Melia Hotel - Plaza de San Miguel, 10 - Valladolid 47003 - Spain Phone: 983357200 Fax: 983336828
Lasa Sport Hotel - Ctra. de Rueda, 187 - Valladolid 47008 - Spain Phone: 983245444 Fax: 983247111
Silken Juan De Austria Hotel - Paseo de Zorrila, 108 - Valladolid 47006 - Spain Phone: 983457475 Fax: 983457658
Tryp Recoletos Hotel - Acera Recoletos, 13 - Valladolid 47004 - Spain Phone: 983216200 Fax: 983216210