Venta de Baños is a small town and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

of about 6,400 inhabitants located in the Cerrato district of the

province of Palencia Palencia is a province of northern Spain, in the northern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. It is bordered by the provinces of León, Cantabria, Burgos, and Valladolid. Overview ...

, part of the

autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

Castile and León Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of th ...

in central Spain. It lies some 10 km south of the provincial capital, Palencia. Noteworthy monuments include the medieval Church of San Juan Bautista (St John the Baptist) which was believed to be

Visigothic The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is ...

. RENFE (Spanish National Railways) and the Grupo SIRO food-sector company are the main employers in the municipality. In popular culture and among Spanish railway travellers, Venta de Baños has traditionally had the same sort of iconic status as other great railway junctions of the world, such as

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

in the UK. Before the advent of dedicated high-speed rail routes and cheaper air travel, it was the principal transfer point for travellers between the north-east and north-west regions of Spain and the south. Generations of railway passengers have memories of the waiting rooms and cafeteria at Venta de Baños. The town hosts an annual international

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open cou ...

competition, the

Cross Internacional de Venta de Baños The Cross Internacional de Venta de Baños is a cross country running competition that takes place in Venta de Baños, Castile and León, Spain. The competition was first held in 1980 and since then it has been held every year in mid-December. Amon ...

, which has featured some of the world's foremost cross country athletes including Kenenisa Bekele and Palencian-born Marta Domínguez.25 años de historia
''(25 Years of History)''. Venta de Baños. Retrieved on 2009-12-27.

Twin towns - sister cities

Coulounieix-Chamiers Coulounieix-Chamiers (; oc, Colonhés e Champs Niers) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It is a suburb of Périgueux. Population International relations Coulounieix-Chamiers is twinned wi ...

, France * Tifariti,

Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Venta De Banos Municipalities in the Province of Palencia Railway towns in Spain