Burgos · Castilla Y Leon
Lerma
An extraordinary piece of vanity building — an entire upper town built almost overnight (1606-1617) for a court favourite duke, now centred on a magnificent parador.
What Lerma is like
Portrait drawn from The Rough Guide.
High above the Río Arlanza.
Worth the trip
- The former ducal palace, now a magnificent parador, fronted by a sweeping arcaded plaza
- Six monasteries and convents built by the pious Duke of Lerma
- A weekly Wednesday market filling the main square
A little history
Built almost entirely between 1606 and 1617 at the behest of the Duke of Lerma, court favourite of the weak Felipe III.
Who it suits: Parador seekers · Architecture/history day-trippers
The numbers
The decision data — each figure against the Spanish average. Regional overlays and estimates are labelled, and where there's no local reading we say so plainly.
Climate
- Winter average temp
- 4.7°C 3.1°C below the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 28°C 2.2°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 85 days 24% more than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine estimated
- 6.3 h/day 13% less than the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 95 39 above the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- no local data
- Net income per person
- €14,145 about the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 22.1%
Schools
- Schools in town
- 3
- Nearest international school
- 38 km
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 499 18 above the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 36 min
- Nearest health centre
- 5.8 km
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 87 days 19% less than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 104 min
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 71% 8% below the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 71% 13% below the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 2,648
- Born in Spain
- 82.1% 6.7% below the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 5.4% 1.6% above the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 0 per 1,000
Numbers: SettleSpain town dataset, derived from INE, AEMET, Mitma, Ministerio del Interior and the Catastro. National average = the unweighted mean across all 8,132 Spanish municipalities with data. A blank means no municipal-level figure is published — not a zero.
How does Lerma fit you?
These are the town's numbers. Whether it's your town depends on what you're optimising for — winter sun or mild summers, a city or a village, short medical waits, an easy flight home. The 3-minute quiz scores Lerma against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 39 min from Burgos, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Lerma for you →Nearby towns
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