Saldaña is the principal town of the fertile 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...

 plains in 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...

, and may be the town of "Eldana" mentioned by the historian Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

 as being conquered by the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

.

The town's connection to the Roman Era is reflected in the beautiful remains of a villa attributed to the emperor Theodosius I

Theodosius I

Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...

.

It was here in 1149 that Berenguela of Barcelona

Berenguela of Barcelona

Berenguela or Berengaria of Barcelona was Queen consort of Castile, León and Galicia She was the daughter of Raimon III of Barcelona and Dulce Aldonza Milhaud...

 died.

The medieval counts of Saldaña figure in local history and literature, particularly as relate to the exploits of the semi-legendary figure Bernardo del Carpio

Bernardo del Carpio

Bernald del Carpio, also Bernaldo del Carpio and Bernardo del Carpio, is a legendary hero of medieval Kingdom of Asturias, comparable to other legendary medieval Iberian heroes like El Cid.-The story:...

.