Maybe that name in the title rings a bell wayyyyyy back in your past… say maybe in high school history class? If not, it definitely should. More on that later. This weekend my boyfriend and I took a day trip to the towns of Fuensaldaña, Simancas, and Tordesillas. The first two were on the way to the main show, but I’ll put some pictures of them below.
Tordesillas should be familiar to the large majority of you because that is where the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 was signed. Hmmm, 1494, you say? Ringing more bells yet? It was with this treaty, mitigated by the Pope and signed by Spain and Portugal, that divided the Americas as we know them today.
Ever wonder why Brazil speaks Portuguese and the rest of South and Latin America speaks Spanish? Well it’s because at the time of signing, no one knew how big the Americas really were, and they basically picked a longitudinal line and gave Portugal everything to the east (Brazil) and Spain everything to the west (literally everything else). The treaty obviously has had a huge impact on how that part of the world not only looks, but also how it is, today. And it was signed only an hour away from where I live. Sigh. I love history.
There was, of course, a museum (free!) where you could see the actual documents signed. So cool. Picture below.
The town also had some really wonderful murals on the walls of the main street, and even one dedicated to Cervantes on a side street.
The other two towns we stopped at had impressive castles; hence the pre-Tordesillas stops. The first was Fuensaldaña.
The second was Simancas, which housed inside of its castle the National Archives. Included in the archives were a ton of Cervantes’ personal and business letters, and also the letters of his relatives.
So there’s your nugget of history for today, hope you enjoyed!