How to travel back in time to immerse yourself in a calmer, quieter era: this is what driving to lose yourself in the immensity of Castilla y León feels like. The region in the world with the most UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Sites always enchants, always surprises, for it is full of corners that take your breath away because of their beauty. Rello is one of them.
It is situated in the province of Soria, crossed by the Carraparedes del Sapo, de la Vega and Hocecilla streams. Its location, at the highest point of a limestone rock outcrop, seems to protect it from the intrusion of outsiders. An idea reinforced by the medieval wall of the XIIth century, flanked by towers and crowned with battlements. But once we manage to get past it, we find a destination that is worth visiting.
A stroll through Rello, a charming medieval village
Although it is a small village, Rello remains imposing atop a hill that overlooks the course of the Escalote River. It seems incredible, given its majesty, that only twenty-one residents live in the houses lining its cobbled streets, but the silence soon confirms it.
While this deep calm may seem strange at first, once you get used to hearing the echo of your footsteps on the stone, you begin to appreciate it. It is precisely this that helps reinforce the medieval character that remains almost intact here. It isn’t easy to dig through the centuries of history to find a mention of the town, but those who have done so claim that it must have been a place of great importance during the Reconquista.
We are not surprised, given its position at 1,070 meters above sea level, and the robustness of its walls. The noble houses, the silhouette of the castle on the hill, the towers that surround it and the beautiful churches and hermitages still speak to us of a time when the lords roamed freely over the newly conquered land.
Nobles or knights are no longer around, but it doesn’t matter. Rello remains medieval. This is confirmed by the heraldic shield engraved on one of the entrance doors and the fifteenth-century jurisdiction roll, both bastions of a bygone era that still feel very present.
All the sights in Rello
As we approach this small locality, the first thing that greets us is its twelfth-century walled enclosure, which is almost entirely preserved. Although parts of the structure are in ruins, the wall of Rello surrounds the entire town, like an extension of the rugged rock faces that protect it on one side. Next to the wall, we find the Water Tower, so named because it was used to store water from the river.
On one side of the imposing wall lies the Castle of Rello. Although it was built in the fifteenth century, some parts of the keep remain standing and there are remnants of the cistern: an ancient reservoir whose function was to collect rainwater. Very close to the municipality, on the road that separates it from the town of Caltojar, we find the Torre Riñón: a truncated-conical watchtower nine meters tall that is believed to have been built by the Arabs around the tenth century.
On the other side, sheltered by the wall, are the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, dating from the seventeenth century, and the Church of Saint Andrew, built in Gothic-Renaissance style. Outside, the Hermitage of the Anguishes, which houses an image of the Virgin of Our Lady of the Anguish, completes our visit to the historical-artistic heritage of this medieval town.
TURIUM TIPS
Rello is located in the Altos de Barahona: a landscape of great beauty that alternates gentle plains and deep depressions, covered with lavender, thyme, thorny scrub, and cereal crops. It is also a Special Protection Area for Birds where you can spot species such as the Eurasian eagle-owl, the griffon vulture, or the gray hawk (aguilucho cenizo).
