In the province of Burgos almost 370.000 persons live, and 60 per
cent they live concentrated on three principal municipalities: Burgos, with 160.000;
Miranda de Ebro and Aranda de Duero.
Placed in Subplateau North, his waters spill to three seas across
the rivers Duero, Ebro and Cadagua. The scenery comes constituted
by a miscellany of paramera, saw and vale, combined well synthesis of
the interior Spain.
With a surface of 14269 km ², the Province spreads from the Cantabrian Mountain
range up to another shore of the Duero. It was constituted by tertiary sediments of the
depression of the Duero, dissected by this river and his tributaries.
Of the Cuenca of the Duero The Saw is a part, basically of the party of Rooms of the
Infantes, the Comaracas of Villadiego and of Castrojeriz, the Alfoz of Burgos in the course of the
Arlanzón, the Earths of Lerma watered by the Arlanza and the Bank of the Duero, to one and another
side of Aranda de Duero.
The vale of the Ebro on his part occupies almost a third of
the provincial surface. In this zone there meet basically the Merindades
distributed concerning Medina de Pomar and Villarcayo, the moorland of the Female parrot with
Sedano as capital of historical recognized importance, the fertile basin of the Bureba
center in Briviesca, Miranda de Ebro and Treviño.
The rest of the province takes part of two mountainous systems that frame it:
- The Iberian System that penetrates in Burgos for the high moorlands of the Female parrot,
prolonging the high levels of the paramera up to the south of the capital. To this System
the Saw of the Demand belongs, with one of the maximum elevations of the province the
Peak of San Millán (2.134 m) limit of Burgos with La Rioja and Soria.
- The Cantabrian mountain range, to which there belongs all the north of the province, integrated
into the administrative area of Villarcayo.
They bring in so in the province three important geographical units: the humid Spain, the
vale of the Ebro and the Plateau, which does of Burgos a crossroads of several sceneries;
high mountains happen, as those of the saw of the Demand, peaks of Urbión (2.253 m),
mounts of Goose (996 m.), Rocks of Cervera (1.413 m) or saw of Covarrubias, high plateaus
or moorlands, ravines (Pancorbo), brokers (The Bureba), vales and fluvial countries
(as those of Ore, watered by the Cadagua, bank of the Ebro, Duero, Arlanza, Arlanzón and
Pisuerga); it has a complex and rich morphologic diversity and of relief in that
the lime materials are alternated and clayish.
The climate is
continental, determined for the considerable average altitude (700 meters) and the presence of the
wall of the Cantabrian mountain range, which stops the influence the Atlantic Ocean; the temperature
diminishes with the height, for what zones of
perpetual snow exist in the highest massifs. The thermal oscillation performs the order of 17 °, the winter is long
and hard
(four months with averages lower than 6 °) and in cardinal Burgos, placed to 856 m of
altitude, the temperature of January is 2 ' 5 °C average; the summers are dry
and the annual average temperature is 10 °C. The precipitations are scarce, and they range
between 380 mm per year of Aranda de Duero and 480 mm of cardinal Burgos, although
it increases in the areas of mountain. The Duero and the Ebro cross the opposite ends of the
province, dividing her in two basins. The tributaries of the Ebro are the most
deep (Goose) and those of the Duero the longest (Arlanzón, Arlanza, Esgueva).
The steppe is the
natural vegetation of the parameras, in competition with the cultures of cereals in the
most suitable areas. Forests of coniferous prevail in the Iberian System. In the Cantabrian
Mountains the oak wood alternates with the grasslands. Principally we find vegetation of
junipers, holm oaks, lentiscos and carrascales, and there exist still important forest masses of
pine, oak, reroll and beech.
Burgos is a
province scantly inhabited, with a population density that has been supported during
the last 50 years much underneath of the national average. The increase of the
absolute population between 1900 and 1950 it was slightly important (of 338.822 hab. It happened to 397.048) and
from 30.000 to 82.000 passed hab. From 1950 there begins a slow but continued
descent caused by the emigration towards Madrid and Biscay and for the low birthrate. From
1900 the migratory balances were always already unfavorable, his negatividad being accentuated
in the epoch later to 1950. The urban population is scarce.
