One of the biggest swings in Spain is in a village of 316 residents

The new swing in Salinas de Pisuerga in the Montaña Palentina nature park, has not yet been officially inaugurated, but it is already swinging up and down, with its exceptional views of the mountain range and the nearby river Pisuerga. "Last weekend there was a procession of people waiting," says Julián Aguilar, the village's mayor of 24 years.

Aguilar says that he had long been looking for an activity that would bring life to the town and to the hilltop area of Cuesta del Soto . "We want to make a recreational area that can draw people to Salinas. We saw that there are many things in fashion right now, including giant swings". The result is, of course, striking - a swing standing 9 metres high and 8.5m wide.

Those nine metres make it one of the highest swings in Spain. In Librán, in the municipality of Toreno, El Bierzo, León, another nine-metre-high swing was inaugurated in July 2022, which immediately became the highest in Spain. Until then the Number One spot was held by the Riaño swing , also in the province of León, with a height of eight metres.

The swing in Salinas has cost 30,000 euros, and, according to Aguilar, it is only the beginning of other facilities in Cuesta del Soto, such as a zip line or a slide. The skyline is dominated by some of the peaks of the Montaña Palentina : Espigüete (2,450 m), Peña del Tejo (1,986 m), Pico Murcia (2,341 m), Curavacas (2,520 m) and Peña Carazo (2,012 m).

Few people know that about a hundred million years ago the Ebro basin was a sea that became a backwater in the lower foothills of the Cantabrian mountain range. With the Alpine orogenesis (formation of mountain ranges in southern Europe due to continents colliding in the Mesozoic era) that raised the land from 200m above sea level to 800m today, that sea gradually turned into a series of saltwater lakes that gradually dried up over time. One of the last was the one that extended along the upper course of the Pisuerga (the Romans called it Pisoraca) , where numerous fossils and salt deposits can still be found, all gathered together in the basin-shaped land that today shelters the village of Salinas de Pisuerga, a hidden gem in the Palentian Mountain Range. Part of its very name - Salinas - refers to the salt deposits that were extracted from the area.

Salinas is a clean, tidy, peaceful and charming little village. It has 316 registered inhabitants, all of them proud of its river, its nine-arched bridge, its hermitage of Quintanahernando , (a Romanesque jewel from the 13th century, whose walls almost dip into the waters of Aguilar reservoir - now at 65% of its capacity), and its imposing red church, where the remains of Luis de Velasco, Marquis of Salinas del Río Pisuerga and Viceroy of New Spain, are laid to rest. Many will be surprised to learn that such a small village has a pharmacy, hairdressing salon, supermarket, beauty and massage centre, four bars, three restaurants, three hotels... and now a magnificent swing.