Tordesillas

Medina del Campo is historically a very important Castilian market town, but now not really worth a stop. However, the historic market town of Tordesillas, where you cross the Duero, one of Spain’s major rivers, does make an interesting stop. Juana the Mad (Ferdinand and Isabella’s daughter) locked herself away in the Santa Clara Convent here for 44 years after the death of her husband, Phillip the Fair in 1506. The convent has a beautiful patio, and the nearby church has a fabulous artesonado ceiling, which you should not miss. This is also the place where the Spanish and Portuguese signed a treaty in 1494 that divided the world between them. Setting a line some 1,620 kilometers west of the Cape Verde Islands, it resulted in Spain’s ownership of all of South America except Brazil.