Castilblanco

Castilblanco
Municipality
Flag Coat of arms
Castilblanco Location of Castilblanco within Extremadura
Coordinates:39°18′20″N05°06′37″W
Country	Spain
Autonomous community	Extremadura
Province	Badajoz
Founded	12th century
Government
• Type	Mayor–council
• Body	Ayuntamiento de Castilblanco
•Mayor	Rafael Delgado (PSOE)
Area
• Total	1,316 km2(508 sq mi)
Elevation	501 m (1,644 ft)
Population (2018)
• Total	972
• Density	0.74/km2(1.9/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	castilblanqueño (m), castilblanqueña (f)
Time zone	UTC+1(CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2(CEST)
Postal code	06680
Website	www.castilblanco.es

Castilblancois a municipality located in theprovince of Badajoz,Extremadura,Spain. According to the 2005census(INE), the municipality has a population of 1146 inhabitants.

Toponymy

Engravingwith a hypothetical shape of the original fortress.

There is no accord about the origins of the name of Castilblanco, but it is known that it is related to an ancient castle located where the San Cristóbal church is located nowadays. It is not known who built the castle. They could have been Arabs or Christians in the beginnings of 12th century, during theReconquista.Many historians argue both that Castilblanco was a Templar enclave and that it would have been known ascastillo blanco(white castle) orcastillo de los blancosbecause of the colour of the robe that the Templars wore.

Symbols

The official symbol of Castilblanco is itscoat of arms.Within it there are represented acastle-in memory of the town's origins- anoakandolive-the most commontreesin the surroundings-, thevilladeclaration -by which Castilblanco got sovereignty in 1554- and arock-roseflower,in memory of thecomarcaofLa Jara(The Rock-Rose), to which Castilblanco belonged until its incorporation to theprovince of Badajozafter the fall of theOld Regime.

The coat of arms was approved by a decree of theExtremadura Governmentin 1986, and it is officially described as follows:

Escudo Cuartelado, trayendo: 1ª, de gules, un castillo árabe de plata. 2ª de plata, un olivo de sinople. 3ª, también de plata, una encina de sinople. 4ª, de azur, una cartela de plata con la leyenda "Declaración de Villa por Carlos I, año de 1554", en letras de sable. Sobre el todo una flor de jara. Al timbre, corona mural de villa.

Physical geography

Location

Themunicipalityis located within thecomarcaofLa Siberia,which borders with the provinces ofCáceres,Ciudad RealandToledo.The town is built on a hill southern theGuadalupe Range-which belongs to theToledo Mountains- and between theGuadianaandGuadaluperivers.The town belongs to the judicial district ofHerrera del Duque.

Orography

The urban area is located on a hill which rises above the surroundings countryside. The northern area of the municipality consists of a widerañasoil, undermined by narrow valleys with north-south orientation. These valleys are formed by the streams which flow north. These empty into both theGuadianaandGuadaluperivers. The eastern area of the municipality has the most irregular relief, while both the western and southern countryside consists generally of fields with gentle slopes.

At the boundaries of the municipality are located several ranges which are visible from the urban centre. These ranges belong to the Toledo Mountains, which surround the town on the northern, eastern and southern sides. The ranges located north of the municipality are highest in altitude. Amongst these the highest are theGuadalupe Range,the Altamira Range and the Villuercas Range. The latter reaches 1600 meters. The land extending to the east is very irregular although it is of lower altitudes (around 700 meters at its highest points). In this area there highlight some ranges like Rinconada Range, Palomera Range and Umbría Range. The southern boundary of the municipality, where both the Guadiana and Guadalupe rivers converge, is also a mountainous terrain bounded by the ranges of Barbas de Oro, Pastillos, Chimenea, Escorial, Villares y Golondrinos. All these ranges are of similar altitudes as those to the east.

History

In April 1556 Castilblanco was granted the formal title ofVilla(town) byKing Carlos I,at the request of the Archbishop of Toledo. The population at that time totaled 296 households. Castilblanco had previously been considered an extension of neighboring Talavera.

In December 1931, eight months after the establishment of theSecond Spanish Republic,Castilblanco was the scene ofa violent and unexpected incident.At the time it was apueblo(village) of about 900 reasonably prosperous inhabitants and had no record of political or social unrest. Permission was however refused by the authorities when local socialist leaders proposed a demonstration (the second of two) against the civil governor of Badajoz. The socialist rally went ahead and theCivil Guarddetachment based in the village intervened to disperse it at the instructions of the mayor of the municipality. A crowd of villagers confronted the civil guards who, as elsewhere in rural Spain, were resented as an unpopular and repressive force deliberately recruited from outside the region where they were stationed. After a shot was fired, the four civil guards present were knifed to death and their bodies mutilated. It was not possible to identify the actual killers, although six villagers were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.The incident was the first of a series of disturbances that led up to the outbreak of theSpanish Civil Warin 1936.

See also

• SP Castilblanco