Reinosa

History

The first documents mentioning the town date back to the year 1000, when it was divided into four solars by Sancho García, the Count of Castile. By 1404, it was emerging as the main town of the region and was organised into seven Hermandades, military units aimed at retaining law and order. The procurators of these brotherhoods met once a month with the Corregidor to organise the town's affairs.

In 1497, Prince John, son of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon met his affianced wife Margaret of Austria here, the meeting or marriage ceremony probably taking place in La Casa de las Princesas.

In 1517 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor was passing through the town when he was taken ill. He stayed for nine days at the Convento de San Francisco while he recovered. The convent was being built at the time, and a hundred years later had thirty friars while the town had five hundred inhabitants. In the eighteenth century, under the Bourbons, a new highway and a bridge over the River Ebro were built. These works contributed to an economic boom in the region and the town becomes a bustling and prosperous place, on one of the main routes to the port of Santander. In 1927 it received its charter as a city from King Alfonso XII.