Puebla de Sanabria

Puebla de Sanabria stands between the Tera and Castro rivers in the mountains of northwestern Iberia. It became an administrative centre for the surrounding Sanabria district. The counts of Benavente built its castle in the fifteenth century, while the church of Nuestra Señora del Azogue and the sixteenth-century town hall reflect older religious and civic institutions.

Near the Portuguese frontier, the town experienced conflict during the War of the Spanish Succession. Portuguese troops occupied it in 1710, and it returned to the Spanish monarchy in 1715. In the early modern period Puebla headed the Sanabria administrative district within the lands of the count of Benavente; in 1833 it became part of Zamora province.