Zamora Old Town

Zamora sat on the frontier through the eleventh and twelfth centuries, which brought money, masons and a burst of church building: twenty-three Romanesque churches survive within the old town, the densest concentration in Europe, along with the cathedral, whose dome of scaled stone on a drum of windows is unlike anything else in Spain and shows Byzantine influence. Most churches are small, plain and free to enter, and the pleasure is in walking between them. The cathedral museum holds the Black Tapestries, a set of Flemish weavings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Zamora's Holy Week is among the oldest and most austere in Spain, declared of international tourist interest, and it fills the town each spring.

What you actually see

• The twenty-three churches - Europe's densest surviving Romanesque group.
• The cathedral dome - a scaled stone dome with Byzantine character.
• The Black Tapestries - Flemish weavings in the cathedral museum.
• The Holy Week processions - austere and ancient rites through the town.

When to go

April to June and September to November; Holy Week is the town's great event and fills it completely. Summer on the meseta is very hot and winter cold. Many churches keep short and irregular hours.

Honest expectations

Most of the Romanesque churches are locked outside service times or open only in short windows, and seeing inside more than a handful takes planning. Zamora is quiet and off the main tourist circuit. Accommodation is scarce during Holy Week.

Nearby

The Arribes del Duero lie southwest; Salamanca and Toro are within an hour.