Map - Tordesillas

Tordesillas is a town and municipality in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León, central Spain. It is located 25 km southwest of the provincial capital, Valladolid at an elevation of 704 m. The population was c. 8,760.

The town is located on the Douro River although the river is not navigable up to Tordesillas. There are highway connections to Madrid, 182 km to the southeast, and with Salamanca, 96 km to the southwest. The provincial capital of Valladolid is also linked by four-lane highway.

Because of its important highway connections Tordesillas has become a major transit hub. The economy is based on services—especially connected to tourism—and the agricultural production of the surrounding area. Wheat has long been the traditional agricultural product (see Cuisine of the province of Valladolid).

The town is well served by hotels with a Parador, four three-star hotels, one two-star hotel, and ten hostels and pensions. There is also a camping site. There is also an abundance of restaurants—27 in total—with the Parador restaurant having a three star classification. North of the town there is a fertile valley formed by the Douro, with extensive use of irrigation by central pivots.

The town is known for its Toro de la Vega festival during which a bull was slaughtered by people on horseback and on foot. Animal rights groups repeatedly tried to stop this from taking place.

The Roman Turris Sillae, built on the hill of Siellas, was the bulwark of the defensive line of the Duero during the Reconquest. In 1262 it received its charter from Alfonso X the Wise. The town began to be favored by the royal family and nobility, above all after Alfonso XI built a palace (1325). In the 15th century the town hosted several meetings of the Cortes. During the skirmishes between Henry IV and the nobility the city supported the monarchy, and again during the clashes between the Catholic Monarchs and Joanna La Beltraneja in 1476.

The Catholic Monarchs signed the Treaty of Tordesillas with the Portuguese crown in 1494, which established the line dividing the globe between Spain and Portugal for colonization purposes. This affected the Portuguese and Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Despite Tordesillas' traditional support for the monarchy, in the Castilian War of the Communities by citizens of Castile against the rule of Charles V, the city took the side of the Comuneros. The leaders chose Charles' own mother, Queen Joanna I, as an alternative ruler in more than title in 1519. They came to the town to ask for the mediation of Joanna I, confined within the Santa Clara convent since 1509 by her father Ferdinand II. However, in 1521, after nearly a year of rebellion, the reorganized supporters of the emperor Charles V struck a crippling blow to the comuneros at the Battle of Villalar, and finally royal troops of the Count of Haro captured Tordesillas.

This 16th-century event was the beginning of a long decline from influence and prosperity. The ongoing position of Tordesillas at a crossing of historic roads and modern highways has been the decisive factor in its economic survival and development.