Lerma is a historic hilltop town in the province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León, overlooking the fertile valley of the River Arlanza. Its vernacular architecture is characterised by warm-coloured stone houses, arcaded streets, traditional tiled roofs, and substantial Renaissance and Baroque buildings. The most important landmark is the vast Ducal Palace, now a Parador, which dominates the town alongside the impressive Plaza Mayor and the former convents and churches associated with the powerful Duke of Lerma. The surrounding countryside is largely agricultural, with cereal fields, vineyards, and livestock farming shaping the rolling Castilian landscape. Lerma stands out from similar Castilian towns because of its remarkably grand early-17th-century transformation under the Duke of Lerma, who created an unusually coherent collection of palaces, convents, and religious buildings, giving this relatively small town an imposing architectural character out of proportion to its size.