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Situation: 

40° 24' 13" N    5° 44' 55" W

Valdesangil, is a Béjar district, only 3 km away from it, down South in Salamanca province, at the mountain and green area that composes the landscapes of Sierra de Béjar-Candelario, a ridge of mountains and the natural “frontier” between Castilla-León and Extremadura at the counter forts of the rockyl Sistema Central (Central System), consisting of granite outcrops.

         Very few kilometers away fron Valdesangil we find:   

- The ski station La Covatilla, unique at the mountain sysem of Sierra de Béjar-Candelario. The picturesque village Candelario, protected historic and artistic ensemble, as well as Béjar, with its five churches, history, gastronomy and renaissance parks. 

- The very antique Silver Way, with well preserved parts of the original roman road. Guijuelo , capital of the origin denomination of the iberian pork of Salamanca . 

- The Natural Partk of Sierra de Francia, with its very touristic villages (La Alberca, Mogarraz, Miranda del Castañar, etc.) and the Valley of the Batuecas including the famous monastery and prehistorics paintings.   - A great enviroment of chest-nut woods, oak-woods, trails, rapacious, flora and alive Nature.

 Valdesangil, our village, is around 1040 m high, South oriented and inserted in a small valley surrounded of a granite circus with some important heights, very good to practice climbing. From above on these elevationes, is possible to see many of the villages around; this valley receives waters from a stream called Valdesangil, that shares the named with our village.

Geology:

 Valdesangil surroundings are formed by granite outcrops building hills and heights like “Cancho Bermejo ”, a granite mass with no vegetation at all showing soft wind and water erosion, with 25 to 30 m vertical faces, utilized by climbing schools. “Piquitos ”, 1250 m, with capricious rock forms. “Cabeza Gorda ”, 1500 m, and “Valdeama ” promontory. In clear days, using binoculars, from the top of "Cabeza gorda" is possible to see Salamanca (65 km away).

Flora:

  Very diverse and changing flowers throughout the year seasons. Abundant grammineous that gives us a spectacular springtime every year with their blooming. Very extended wild violets , petunias , pansies , lilac flowers and daisies .  

  The trees: oak trees , chest-nut trees , ash trees , willows, gall oak trees , alder trees , service trees , maple trees , holly trees , poplars , laurels , linden trees , some evergreen oak trees , and many others, allow us to enjoy the color changing every season.

  Among the fruit trees, there are many mullberry trees , apple trees , pear trees , berry trees , fig trees , quince trees and some pomegranate trees . Among the shrubs we can remark brooms , scotch brooms , hawthorns , english hawthorns , laurustinus , dewberries , and many others. 

  Many fragrant plants and herbs as thyme , arabian lavender , english lavender , rosemary , origanum , penny-royal , peppermint , chamomile , and many others. It's very important the mushrooms presence in the woods around: sylvester champignon , rusula aurea , agrocybe aegerita , boletus edulis , morchella rotunda , amanitas , lactarious , lepistas and others.

  Chest-nut trees , rew trees , oak trees , cedars , pine trees ,  walnut trees , cypress , acclimated to these latitudes, that have offer their fruits by centuries, helping the birth of traditions, folklore and popular holydays.

  There are remarkable subjects like the Lebanon cedar on the left that is more or less 600 years old, or the impresive mullberry tree at the right photography.

  Among these spectacular beings there are some secuoia , unique 'douglas', silver firs , different kinds of  holly trees and other more or less exotic trees in private and public gardens.

Fauna:

  It is very remarkable the presence of diverse protected rapacious as royal kites , hawks , eagles , lion vultures , sparrow-hawks , barred owls and many others, whose elegant way of flying is possible to be observed almost all year long across this country side and identified by their distinctive silhouettes in the air.

  Among small birds, we can indicate the omnipresent blackbird , skylarks , migratory golden orioles, nightingales , woodpeckers , thieving magpies , shy hoopoes , etc.

  Storks come every year, delaying their departure more and more and even staying all year long if they have insured food. Surely due to the relative nearness of Monfragüe Natural Park , once in a while is possible to see some herons .

  Beside the spected country animals as different cows , iberian porks (dark grey or dark red skin), etc. it's not unusual to see wild boars , partirdges , pidgeons , quails , hares , rabbits , turtle doves , and many other normal species in a cynegetic ambient like this.

  Very often it's possible to see genets , badgers , hedgehogs , weasels , moles , some wild cats and goats .

 There are some reptiles (difficult to see) like salamanders , stallions and lizards .

History:

  As usual with old villages and towns in Castilla-León, their history is related to Celtic, Celtiberian and later Vettonic settlements, that have been used for centuries as cattle dealers or as farmers villages. In our case, the roman influence is very noticeable on bridges and all the necessary components for the long North to South 'highway', some centuries later named Silver way, which denomination is due to an arabian word meaning stoned way. All around this area there are archeological remains from the celtic people (stone tombs), the romans and, of course, arabian vestiges as the Béjar walls that surround the village. 

 With the christian settlements, on previous arabian lands and villages, many churches were built over older temples, to make the population to settle down around the temples. In our case, Valdesangil is a village that was established by cattle dealers, farmers and bee-weepers, near Béjar, and always depending on this bigger town.

 This village appears as a group of houses around a primitive church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Remedios, with pasture-grounds, sheep-folds, etc. that was known as The Houses of Saint Gil valley on Béjar's town- hall records. That named did evolution to today's "Valdesangil". No question, the 'valley' denomination is related to the granite circus that surrounds it.

 On those Bejar's town-hall records, the oldest data appears as an property contract in 1525, where this village is already named Valdesangil. Another registry on a flax-field sale, dated on 1709, also shows the same named for this village.

 On a record at the church files, a new temple starts its construction during 1715, replacing the old chapel, with the patronage of the Plasencia bishop (D. Francisco Hernández Nieto) who paid 10.000 'reales' for this project. The new and existing church was made of granite stones, and it is remarkable its bell-tower, the elevated choir and the retables (altarpieces). On one of these retables, it appears the heraldic symbol of the spanish family name Gil, which seems to be the origin of the village name. The church is still standing and it is possible to visit it.  

 In 1751 the Béjar town-hall records show how important this village was because of the cattle-dealers, since there are so many records about the design and construction of cattle ways, mainly for sheeps, the most important commerce in those years in Castilla.

 As a curious data, the church pulpit has an iron label that shows the year 1789 as its date of construction. The same year of the French Revolution.

 In 1812 the Béjar town hall acknowledges Valdesangil as an independent territory but legally depending on that village.

 At the village entrance (at the way out for the inhabitants) there was an old group of three granite stone crosses which, in 1901, was renew to a neoclassical style by the sculptor Román Manuel Hernández, brother of the also sculptor and famous Mateo Hernández. The center cross is 4.75 m high and includes a stoned Christ image. The side crosses are 1.80 m and 1.64 m high.

Legends

"The french treasure".-

 The Valdesangil people tell the story about a french general, by the time Napoleon's troops were staying over Spain and Portugal, who was coming back to France carrying a very important booty that was too heavy and voluminous and impossible to take back to his country. He thought that it would be much more positive to find a place for hiding his treasure and to come back later with adequate transportation to take the booty to France. According with this legend, he looked for a cave in the Valdesangil mountains and cliffs to hide his treasure. He finaly found a place and he left all the worths in it. He left a sword infixed on the inner cave floor, to insure that he will be able to recognize the cave on his way back, after the war was over, and when he'll be ready for taking the treasure to France.

  Some time later, a shepherd found the french general's sword a rainy day when he lead into the cave to all his sheeps and he took it home to show it to everybody, but he didn't know there was a treasure behind it.

  A few years later, the french general came back to take his treasure with him. Desperate, for some years, he looked for the place and was not able to remember the cave or find his marking sword. The shepherd was already dead and his family didn't know where the sword was found. Finally, the general came back to France, leaving here the treasure and the sword

  According to people here, this legend is completely true and they insist on the possibility of finding the 'treasure of the french', someday, in one of the many caves around Valdesangil.

 Acknowledgements:

 To all the Valdesangil inhabitants, who helped and given detailed information, very useful for the compilation of the necessary data and to build these pages up. Affable, sincere and communicative persons and, also, people that know very well their environments.

  We remark the authorised information given on some matters by Don Agustín (Valdesangil priest), a cultured, curious and permanent student person, as well as very concerned on the village cultural health.

  We have to refer to the specialized books on flora, fauna, this region history and description, that have been used as data base for building these pages: "Guide to trees and shrubs in Castilla and León" (J.A. Oria de Rueda, and Justino Díez), "Birds at the Sierra de Béjar" (Raúl Bueno Hernández), "To discover the woods" (Jose Luis Gallego), "European trees" (Jaromir Pokorny), etc. that we recommend to those curious who wanted to know more on these matters.