Palencia is a historic city in northern Castilla y León, lying on the banks of the River Carrión amid the fertile plains of the Tierra de Campos. Its architecture combines traditional Castilian houses of brick and stone, arcaded streets and squares, and substantial Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque buildings. The great Cathedral of San Antolín, known as the “Beautiful Unknown”, is the city’s outstanding monument, while the Romanesque church of San Martín de Tours and the Cristo del Otero statue are also significant landmarks. The surrounding countryside is predominantly agricultural, with extensive cereal cultivation, sugar beet, vegetables, and livestock farming. Palencia is rather different from the more celebrated historic cities of Castilla y León: it has a quieter, more workaday character, yet contains an impressive concentration of historic architecture and sits at the heart of one of the region’s great agricultural landscapes.