Valladolid, chief town of its province, the see of an archbishop and a university town, lies on the Río Pisuerga just above its confluence with the Duero, on the fertile plateau of Old Castile. In recent decades the town has enjoyed a considerable economic upswing through the rapid development of
industry, particularly car production; but as a result it is now surrounded by rather dreary industrial suburbs and the central area as a whole is not particularly attractive either. It does, however, preserve some splendid buildings and works of art, the legacy of a great past when it was the residence of the Spanish kings and attracted great artists working in the Isabelline, Renaissance and Herreran styles.
History
There was a settlement here in the time of the Arabs, who called it Velad-Olid or Balad-Walid ("Town of the Governor"). In 1469 the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, were married in Valladolid, and in 1504-06 Columbus, an ailing and disappointed man, spent the last two years of his life in the town. For brief periods during the 16th and 17th centuries, during the reigns of Philip II and III, Valladolid was the seat of the Spanish court. It was Napoleon's headquarters in 1809.
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