Sotosalbos

The church door stands open at half past ten, but nobody's about. Swallows dive through the porch of San Miguel Arcángel, the same way they've done since the twelfth century, while the only footsteps echoing across the stone floor belong to the occasional visitor who has driven the winding CM-110 from Segovia. At 1,158 metres above sea level, Sotosalbos barely tops 130 souls, yet it guards what many art historians call the finest Romanesque portico in the province.

That portico is the obvious place to start. Forty metres of slim columns support a wooden roof; every capital is carved with a different scene—Daniel in the lions' den, a fox pretending to be dead, acanthus leaves so deep you could trace them with a pencil. Unlike the cathedral in Segovia, here you can stand nose-to-stone with the sculptures; no rope, no ticket desk, only the faint smell of incense from last Sunday's mass. The key hangs in the house opposite if the door is locked: knock, and the caretaker will appear with an apron still dusted with flour.

Beyond the church the village squeezes along a single ridge. Granite houses, their timber doors painted ox-blood or indigo, share walls with empty stone troughs where pigs were once fattened each winter. There is no high street, merely a triangle of sloping cobbles that funnels rainwater into a central drain. The loudest noise is usually the wind in the pines that carpet the valley below; the loupest smell is woodsmoke and, on Saturdays, roast lamb drifting from Asador David Guijarro.

Walking the Cañadas

Three footpaths leave the square, following cattle tracks older than any map. The shortest, signposted Pozas de Lino, drops gently through holm-oak and broom to a spring where linen was once rinsed. The round trip takes forty minutes—an hour if you stop to photograph the church tower rising like a mast above the treeline. Sturdier boots open longer circuits: south-east to Collado Hermoso (6 km) or west along the Cañada Real Segoviana towards the abandoned village of Requijada. These are not mountainous trails; gradients are kind, but the altitude can fool you. A flask of water is wise even in May, when the thermometer still dips below 10 °C at dawn.

Cyclists use the same web of farm tracks. The loop north to Pedraza adds 400 m of climbing on quiet tarmac, rewarded by a stone bridge and views across the cereal plain. Mountain bikes cope fine, but skinny tyres suffer when the surface turns to gravel after rain.

What to Eat and When

Sotosalbos will never starve you, yet choice is finite. Weekend visitors should reserve a table before they leave home; both restaurants seat perhaps thirty covers between them. Asador David Guijarro specialises in lechazo—suckling lamb roasted in a wood-fired brick oven until the skin crackles like thin toffee. A quarter portion (around €18) is plenty if you want space for pudding: ponche segoviano, a square of sponge soaked in custard and sealed with marzipan, sweeter than British trifle but comfortingly familiar.

La Chimenea, tucked beside the church, offers a weekday menú del día for €14: soup or salad, then judiones (buttery white beans stewed with chorizo) or a simply grilled pork chop. House wine is a young Tempranillo from Valdeviñas; light enough for lunchtime and mercifully free of the oak that overpowers many Riojas. Vegetarians survive on tortilla and cheese, though advance notice earns a plate of roasted piquillo peppers. Coffee comes with a complimentary shot of orujo if the owner is in festive mood.

Seasons and Silence

April brings almond blossom and the first warm afternoons; by mid-May the night chill has retreated, making it the sweetest month for walking. September glows with saffron-coloured broom; the 29th is the feast of San Miguel, when emigrants return, a marquee goes up in the square and the village population quadruples for forty-eight hours of communal paella and late-night verbenas. August can reach 30 °C at noon, but evenings are cool enough for a jumper. Winter is a different proposition: blue skies, yes, but also hard frost and the occasional snowdrift that cuts the road for a day. If you do arrive in January, bring proper soles—the cobbles ice over and there is no gritter.

Getting There, Getting Out

Public transport does not reach Sotosalbos. From Segovia the drive takes 35 minutes: take the SG-20 ring road, turn off at the old N-110 to Carbonero el Mayor, then follow the CM-110 into the hills. The final 3 km narrow alarmingly; mirrors fold in, and meeting a tractor means reversing to the nearest passing bay. Park in the mirador at the village entrance—wider vehicles simply will not turn in the lanes beyond.

A taxi from Segovia bus station costs about €35 each way; most drivers are happy to wait two hours while you walk and lunch. Combine with nearby Pedraza (15 min farther on) for a full day: morning Romanesque in Sotosalbos, lunchtime medieval cobbles in Pedraza, evening back in Segovia for the aqueduct lit up at dusk.

The Honest Verdict

Sotosalbos is not a place to tick off “activities”. There is no gift shop, no interpretive centre, no boutique hotel. Mobile signal flickers; the church has no electric heating; and if both restaurants are closed you will eat your sandwich on a stone bench while the village dogs watch in hope. Yet that simplicity is the point. Half a day here offers something increasingly scarce in central Spain: the sound of wind instead of engines, architecture you can inspect without a selfie-stick queue, and the certainty that when you leave, the swallows will have the porch to themselves once more.