Custom Tours in France, Spain and Portugal

Route of the Castilian Language

Tour the Birthplace of Spanish

Spanish is spoken by more than 400 million people around the world. It has been an inspiration for a great number of chroniclers, playwrights, novelists and authors of all kinds. In this region, you will discover the cradle of the Spanish language and follow its evolution through the high points of Spain's cultural history from the 10th to the 17th centuries.

Here are some of the highlights to base a tour on:

The monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla (a World Heritage Site), a short distance from Bilbao. Here, back in the 11th century, a friar penned the first written examples of Romance Castilian in the margin of a Latin text, the famous "Glosas Emilianenses." This location is thus considered to be the birthplace of the Castilian language. The monastery library contains over 10,000 medieval documents and illuminated manuscripts in perfect condition.

Santo Domingo de Silos. This monastery was founded in 954 by count Fernan Gonzalez and renovated in 1073 by Santo Domingo (St. Dominic). Early Castilian Spanish is also found in the "Glosas Silenses," a religious poem about the saint's life, preserved in the monastery's library.

El Cid in Burgos. Burgos became the capital of Castilla y Léon in 1073 and retained that status until the completion of the Christian Reconquest in 1492. By then Castilian was climbing the evolutionary ladder as a literary language, as evidenced by El Cantar del Mio Cid (The Song of El Cid). This epic poem transformed the noble Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar into the greatest hero of the Reconquest. The Gothic cathedral of Burgos is a World Heritage Site.

Valladolid also has a rich literary heritage and culture. It is the birthplace of a great number of Spanish authors: José Zorrilla, Jorge Guillén, Rosa Chacel, Miguel Delibes and Francisco Umbral. This historic city also became home to a few more writers and other famous people throughout Spanish history: Miguel de Cervantes, Christopher Columbus and Santa Teresa de Jesús.

Salamanca (another World Heritage site). The University of Salamanca counts as former professors many well-known figures from Spanish cultural history: Francisco de Vitoria, the creator of many basic principals of international law; Antonio de Nebrija, author of the first Spanish language grammar; and Fray Luis de León, translator of the Song of Songs (Cantar de los Cantares).

Other famous individuals attended the university as students: Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, San Juan de la Cruz, Lope de Vega and Luis de Góngora. Miguel de Cervantes dedicated his novel El licenciado vidriera to the city of Salamanca. Juan de la Encina wrote most of his works there. Salamanca is the setting for El Lazarillo de Tormes and the famous La Celestina, one of the best novels of the Spanish Golden Age. The poet, novelist and playwright Miguel Unamuno was rector of the University from 1900 to 1924 and from 1930 to 1936, before he was removed by the forces of the dictator Francisco Franco.

Alcalá de Henares (another World Heritage site) is the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes. The University, founded in 1498 by Cardinal Cisneros, has a magnificent Plateresque façade.

There are many more possibilities for tours in this area: the medieval castles of Penafiel and La Mota, the wine regions of Rueda, Ribeira and La Rioja, the royal palace of La Granja and several important cities: Avila, Segovia, Madrid, etc.

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Please tell us where and when you want to travel and we will create a custom tour that fits your specific interests, schedule and budget.

Your tailor-made package will include ground transportation, guided tours and hotel rooms.

The price of your program will depend on your needs (scheduled group tours, private guides...) and the number of participants in your group, the length of the trip, the category of hotels, the number of places visited, the time of year, etc.

We will do all the bookings and pay each individual provider on your behalf. In other words, you go and have fun and we'll take care of the details for you.

El Cid, Burgos

Miguel de Cervantes

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca

Burgos cathedral