Unmapped Gems
CityBest April – June, September – October

Lerma

A ducal town on the Arlanza built almost entirely under one 17th-century duke, still barely on the way to anywhere.

Lerma exists in its current form because the Duke of Lerma, Philip III's favourite, rebuilt the whole town around his own palace in a few years of the early 1600s — the arcaded main square and the walls down to the river date from that one push. It's a stop on the road between Madrid and Burgos more than a destination in its own right, which keeps it quiet outside the ducal palace itself.

Lerma