Galisteo town origins date back to the Roman and Moorish periods, although its golden age was between 1229 and 1837, when it was the village capital of the Galisteo Estate, whose territory included villages such as Pozuelo de Zarzón, Guijo de Galistero, Montehermoso and Carcaboso.
Remnants of its important past that still stand today include its wall, which still completely surrounds the old part of the town, next to which is the keep known as La Picota, considered the town’s greatest symbol.
The town, part of the Alagón Valley, still preserves the Almohad-period wall built using logs and pebbles from the river. It is known for its good state of repair and for the layout that remains intact, and it surrounds the entire historic centre of Galisteo.
In fact, the vast majority of the houses in this town are inside the wall. The Mudéjar apse of the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción is also within the wall, built in the 13th century following Romanesque Mudéjar plans from Castile-León. The apse is formed by two sets of superimposed blind brick arches. The church’s nave was remodelled in the 16th century.
The Picota Tower is also a must-visit. This is the keep from the fortification the Christians built in the 14th century as part of the palace over the Almohad fortress. It gets its name – ‘picota’, or ‘peak’ – from the sharp point formed by the pyramid on an octagonal base featured on the top.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).