 Castilla
y León, known formally as the Community of Castile and León
is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain, the country's
largest - in fact, it is the largest subnational political division in
the European Union. It is formed by the union of two ancient kingdoms:
Old Castile (Ávila, Burgos, Segovia and Soria) and the Kingdom of
León (León, Zamora, Salamanca, Palencia and Valladolid),
which were separated and reunited several times in the Middle Ages.
Castilla y León
borders on Asturias and Cantabria to the north, Aragon, the Basque Country,
and La Rioja to the east, the autonomous community of Madrid and Castile-La
Mancha to the southeast, Extremadura to the south, and on Portugal and
Galicia to the west.
Castilla y León
roughly overlaps with the Spanish part of the Douro River basin, on the
northern half of the Meseta Central, a vast plateau in the middle of the
Iberian Peninsula. It also extends to some adjoining valleys, such as El
Bierzo (León) and many secluded mountain valleys: Laciana (León),
Valle de Mena (Burgos), Valle del Tiétar (Ávila), etc.
The region is the land communication
hub of northern Spain. It is crossed by the International E-roads E80 and
E05. These are the main roads connections between Portugal and the south
of Spain with the rest of Europe.
Castilla and León
is also crossed by two major ancient routes:
-
The Way of St. James (Spanish:
Camino de Santiago), now a hiking trail and a motorway, from East to West.
-
The Roman Silver Way (Spanish:
Vía de la Plata), now a main road, through the West of the region.
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