3 Best Sights in Sepulveda, Castile–Leon and Castile–La Mancha

This 11th-century hermitage is in ruins, but its location—on a peninsula jutting out into a bend 100 meters above the Duratón River—is extraordinary. You'll need a car to get there, about 15 minutes' drive west of Sepúlveda. After parking, walk along the marked path—the surrounding area is a natural park and a protected nesting ground for rare vultures. Try to go at sunset; when the sun sets the monastery and river glow. Inside the monastery, there's a small chapel and plaque describing the life of San Frutos, the patron saint of Segovia. An ancient pilgrimage route stretches 77 km (48 miles) from the monastery to Segovia's cathedral, and pilgrims still walk it each year. As an add-on to the trip, you can rent kayaks from NaturalTur to paddle the river ( www.naturaltur.com;  92/152–1727).

Perhaps the most famous medieval sight near Segovia—worth the 52-km (32-mile) detour northwest of the city en route to Ávila or Valladolid—is the Castillo de Coca. Built in the 15th century for Archbishop Alonso de Fonseca I, the castle is a turreted Mudejar structure of plaster and red brick surrounded by a deep moat. Highly Instagrammable, it looks like a stage set for a fairy tale, and indeed, it was intended not as a fortress but as a place for the notorious voluptuary to hold riotous bacchanals. The interior, now occupied by a forestry school, has been modernized, with only fragments of the original decoration preserved.

This 11th-century wonder is the oldest Romanesque church in the province. The carvings on its capitals, probably by a Moorish convert, are quite outlandish.