Madrigal de las Altas Torres

Municipality in Castile and León, Spain

Coat of arms

41°5′22″N 4°59′56″W / 41.08944°N 4.99889°W / 41.08944; -4.99889CountrySpainAutonomous community Castile and LeónProvinceÁvilaArea

• Total106.80 km² (41.24 sq mi)Elevation

809 m (2,654 ft)Population

(2018)^[1]

• Total1,440WebsiteOfficial website

Madrigal de las Altas Torres (in English: Madrigal of the high towers) is a municipality of Spain located in the province of Ávila, autonomous community of Castile and León. Displaying a total area of 106.80 km², the municipality has, as of 2019, a registered population of 1,415.^[2] The municipality is located in the northernmost end of the province of Ávila, near the provinces of Salamanca and Valladolid.^[3]

The toponym is recorded earliest in the middle ages as Matrigale and Madrigal, whilst the second part of the current placename is a late modern addition.^[4] Hitherto a hamlet of the land of Arévalo, Madrigal earned a fuero in 1017 (ratified in 1168), becoming closely linked to the affairs of the House of Trastámara in the late middle ages.^[4]

The town was encircled by walls in the Middle Ages (following a near-circular outline).^[5] Today some parts of the walls are still preserved, most notably the southwestern part.^[6] Madrigal experienced a massive rural flight after the 1950s.^[6] The Junta of Castile and León declared the historical centre of the municipality as bien de interés cultural (conjunto histórico) in September 2020.^[7]

Notable people

Vasco de Quiroga (1477/1479 Madrigal de las Altas Torres (Ávila) - 1565 Quiroga (Michoacán, México)
Alonso Tostado (d. 1455)
Isabella I of Castile (1451–1504), Queen of Castile
Catalina de Balmaseda y San Martín, prioress, was born here in 1543.^[8]

References

^ Municipal Register of Spain 2018. National Statistics Institute.
^ "Datos del Registro de Entidades Locales". Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformación Digital.
^ Coca, Verónica; Quiroga, Guillermo (2014). "Construcción en tierra y calicanto en Madrigal de las Altas Torres (Ávila). Estado de conservación de la arquitectura vernácula y monumental" (PDF). In Sainz Guerra, José Luis; Jové Sandoval, Félix (eds.). Construcción con tierra, patrimonio y vivienda: Congreso de Arquitectura de Tierra en Cuenca de Campos 2013 (PDF). Valladolid: Cátedra Juan de Villanueva. Universidad de Valladolid. pp. 79–86. ISBN 978-84-617-0473-6.
^ ^a ^b "Madrigal de las Altas Torres" (PDF). Románico Digital. p. 277.
^ Coca & Quiroga 2014, pp. 79–80.
^ ^a ^b Coca & Quiroga 2014, p. 80.
^ "La Junta declara a Madrigal de las Altas Torres BIC en su conjunto histórico". COPE. 3 September 2020.
^ Teresa of Avila (23 September 2011). The Collected Letters of St. Teresa of Avila, vol. 2 (1578 - 1582): 1578-1582. ICS Publications. pp. 410–. ISBN 978-0-935216-90-5.