There was a time long ago when our shady garden, which hosts so many events, was part of a vast swampy terrain. Marshes, marshes and mudflats occupied the entire Arlanzón valley up to the city of Burgos and beyond, an abundance of water that helps explain the natural and archaeological wealth of our area.

A short distance from Casa Secuoya, the deposits of Atapuerca They attest to the continuity of human settlement throughout the valley over millennia. The homo antecessor of a million years ago came down from their caves to drink on the banks of the Arlanzón. And 50,000 years ago, the last Neanderthals established hunting posts on meadows and slopes.

Much later, in historical times, the humid lands were dried to gain agricultural land. Also to ensure the communication routes that cross the valley, starting with the relevant Camino de Santiago, one of whose branches passes to the doors of Casa Secuoya.

back to the garden

Hearing the bubbling of the small pond is a morning pleasure like few others. First thing in the morning, with the world calm, the garden appears especially harmonious and the delicate presence of water has something to do with that well-being. A few meters away, the large mass of the pool appears so well integrated within the surrounding area of vegetation that it looks like a small natural lake.

In Spain there is a fundamental tradition when it comes to gardens and water: the Spanish-Arabic garden. The philosopher Santiago Beruete says in his work Gardenosophy that in these spaces, aesthetics join forces with engineering to enchant the visitor: «The delicious, fresh and sedative lullaby of the water that flows from the fountains, runs through ditches and ditches, is tamed in cisterns, pools and ponds, gives away the visitor's ears and immerses him in an atmosphere of dream and poetic beauty."

We are not in the fertile south of the Andalusian gardens, but our aquatic spaces bring to the senses a sensation that is reminiscent of what Beruete writes. Reading your book in the shadow of the great sequoia is another pleasure that good weather gives us. Some pages that are savored with intensity and that leave us with the best taste in our mouths to continue with the organization of the next event. We are already looking forward to opening, once again, this wonderful wooded environment, always close to water, to life.