Burgos

Our first visit was to the city of Burgos, capital of Old Castile. This was the scene of one of Wellington’s few failures in the Peninsula. 1812 saw victories for him at Cuidad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca and his liberation of Madrid. Yet by late October his army would be in retreat back to the Portuguese border. The cause was his siege of Burgos from 19 September to 21 October.

The cause was a mixture of a very strong castle, a determined garrison commander, a lack of siege materials and a large relief army. But whatever the cause, it must have been a bitter disappointment for him after his brilliant campaign.

We left Santander at 0900 and drove the 100 miles to Burgos, where we arrived just before midday. We managed to find the castle without having to drive through the city. The castle is now a ruin, but overlooking the city as it does, it is easy to get your bearings from a map of the siege. The city is very much on the tourist route, and many of them make their way to the castle. So parking is easy and the ruins well signposted. There was a collection of works of art scattered around the ruins, including this rather strange one behind us on the castle wall.

This simple diagram is just to give you an idea of the layout, there is a much more detailed one below. We approached the castle along the heights of San Miguel, and we stopped to have a look at the Hornwork. Then to the castle itself, which we spent a couple of hours looking and reading.

The siege opened with a successful assault on the Hornwork. But despite four separate attacks, including major siege and mining operations, the garrison held their own and Wellington’s eventually had to give up and retire to Cuidad Rodrigo.

The siege of Burgos is well documented, and we came well prepared with photocopies from books dealing with the siege, and of course we had Jac Weller’s “Wellington in the Peninsula”, our regular companion during all of our visits in Portugal and Spain. We were blessed with a warm, sunny day so it was easy to find a convenient corner and settle down to read of the “daring deeds”.

This photograph shows how close the city is to the castle. The gothic building is the cathedral with the tomb of El Cid. We then walked down the hill to the city, which was crowded with tourists. We were unable to visit the cathedral as it was closed and therefore could not see the tomb of El Cid. The city is well worth a visit in its own right, though we only had time for a short half hour walk around the centre.

The castle survived Wellington’s siege of 1812, but was destroyed by the French themselves the following year when they had to retreat to in the face of Wellington’s advance to Vittoria. On our walk down the hill to the city we looked for any signs of the siege works, but could find none. It was not difficult to identify where the parallels would have been, but the area is now covered in trees making.

This more detailed map of the siege shows the siege works in much greater detail. The siege opened with the capture of the Hornwork, which protected the castle from attack from the rear. After our visit to the castle we returned to the heights of San Miguel to explore the area of the Hornwork.

Unlike the siege works around the castle itself, it is easy to find ditches and redoubts which formed the Hornwork. We had the area to ourselves and settled down to a picnic lunch whilst we read about the light division attack on 19 September 1812 which was led by Major Somers-Cocks, one of Wellington’s most promising officers. Unfortunately he died a few days later taking part in one of the assaults on the castle itself.

Back to the castle for a final look around, and then off on the road to Vittoria.