The town of Fuentidueña, strategically located on the northern slope of a hill, facing the fertile lowlands of the Duratón river, was fortified in the 12th and 13th centuries. The remains of what was once its castle, the walls, some towers and the gate of Alfonso VIII are still preserved. The church of San Martín was erected next to it in the last third of the 12th century. A necropolis of anthropomorphic tombs excavated in the rock, dated between the 10th and 12th centuries, is preserved around it. The origin of the town was precisely there, around the castle and the church of San Martín, from where the settlement moved towards the riverbank. In 1931, the ruined church of San Martín was declared a historic-artistic monument. Even then it served as the town's cemetery, but it still conserved its beautiful Romanesque apse. This construction was the protagonist of an unprecedented vicissitude that led to its dismantling in 1957 and its transfer to New York. It is now housed in The Cloisters, the medieval art section of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as a temporary and indefinite repository. See the details of this unique story: Apse of San Martín de Fuentidueña.