Lerma

Lerma rises above the Arlanza south of Burgos, its skyline dominated by the palace of the dukes who gave the town its greatest splendour. Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, Duke of Lerma and favourite of Philip III, transformed his ancestral town into a setting for courtly life in the early seventeenth century. A vast palace, a great square, convents and a rebuilt church were linked into an imposing ensemble, displaying the power and ambitions of the king's chief minister.