Osorno la Mayor
Encyclopedia
Osorno la Mayor is a municipio
Municipio
Municipio and Município are terms used for country subdivisions. They are often translated as municipality.-Overview:...

 in Palencia province
Palencia (province)
Palencia is a province of northern Spain, in the northern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of León, Cantabria, Burgos, and Valladolid....

, Castile and León
Castile and León
Castile and León is an autonomous community in north-western Spain. It was so constituted in 1983 and it comprises the historical regions of León and Old Castile...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. The Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an city of Osorno
Osorno, Chile
Osorno is a city and commune in southern Chile and capital of Osorno Province in the Los Lagos Region. It had a population of 145,475, as of the 2002 census...

 (Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

) is named after this place.

General information

  • Covers 88.6 square kilometers and has roughly 1,500 residents.
  • The villages of Villadiezma
    Villadiezma
    Villadiezma is a hamlet of Osorno la Mayor located in the province of Palencia, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2007 census , the village has a population of 90 inhabitants....

    , Las Cabañas de Castilla
    Las Cabañas de Castilla
    Las Cabañas de Castilla is a hamlet of Osorno la Mayor located in the province of Palencia, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2007 census , the village has a population of 40 inhabitants.- Monuments :...

     and Santillana de Campos
    Santillana de Campos
    Santillana de Campos is a hamlet of Osorno la Mayor located in the province of Palencia, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2005 census , the village has a population of 114 inhabitants....

     are hamlet
    Hamlet
    The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

    s of Osorno la Mayor (they belong to the same municipal district).
  • Has easy access to the highways Autovía Camino de Santiago and Autovía Cantabria-Meseta, and also has a train station.

Location

Osorno la Mayor is located on the eastern edge of the province in a region called Tierra de Campos
Tierra de Campos
Tierra de Campos is a large historical region or greater comarca that straddles the provinces of León, Zamora, Valladolid and Palencia, in Castile and León, Spain...

, 50 kilometers from the provincial capital Palencia
Palencia
Palencia is a city south of Tierra de Campos, in north-northwest Spain, the capital of the province of Palencia in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon...

. The town is considered a crossroad for its location on the natural path from the northern plateau to the Bay of Biscay
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal, and is named in English after the province of Biscay, in the Spanish...

, and from Burgos towards León and Galicia.

Local Economy

Economic activity in this region has historically been based on agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

, in particular the cultivation of grains, although this activity is now in decline. Construction, public works projects, and services are booming due to Osorna la Mayor's proximity to two highways (Burgos-León and Palencia-Santander) that pass nearby and the rail lines that follow the same route. The municipality also has an industrial park which drives significant economic activity.

Water

The township is irrigated by water from the Valdavia and Boedo rivers as well as the Castilla Channel. Lock
Lock (water transport)
A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...

 number 15 of the north branch of the channel is located in the township. Only traces remain of the buildings that were on the site of the lock as they were demolished before it was declared a protected historical landmark.

History

Thanks to some artifacts that have been found on the township's land it is known that it hosted a Roman settlement primarily of a military nature. The artifacts have appeared over the years, without any systematic archaeological dig. More recently, organized excavations have found traces of human settlement that may go as far back as the Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....

 Age. The area grew in importance starting in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, no doubt the result of its physical location.

Today only the town hall and some elements of the municipal church such as the baptismal font and the baroque altar attest to a past with artistic or historical interest.

Holiday Celebrations

The most prominent holidays in Osorno la Mayor are the celebration of Our Lady of Ronte, the Pilgrimage of St. Pantaleón and the festivities of San Miguel de los Santos, which is held on the first weekend of July. Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

is also celebrated with fervor; the township has one of the most striking Easter celebrations in the province.
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