Aldeadávila de la Ribera
Aldeadávila de la Ribera is a Spanish municipality and town in the province of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castilla y León. It stands out as the most important population center in the northwest of the Vitigudino region and is considered the capital or service center of the sub-region of La Ribera (Las Arribes). It belongs to the judicial district of Vitigudino and to the Centro Duero Commonwealth.
In addition to Aldeadávila itself, its municipal area is made up of the population centers of Corporario and Salto de Aldeadávila, it occupies a total area of 46.18 km² and according to data from the 2017 municipal register prepared by the INE, it has 1258 inhabitants.
Since Miguel de Unamuno's visits, it has been known as "the heart of Las Arribes". It lends its name to the Aldeadávila dam, built 7 km. It is one of the municipalities with the greatest offer of places and tourist activities within the Arribes del Duero Natural Park.
Etymology
The first existing historical references date from the III century and in them Aldeadávila appears indicated under the name of «Aldea Dauila» or «Aldea de Ávila» as well as Corporario under the name of "Darios". According to authors such as Antonio Llorente Maldonado or Ángel Barrios García, Aldeadávila and Corporario would constitute a place name of repopulation of Avila and Segovian origin, in the sense that it would be settlers from these provinces who These two population centers would be established, the first from Avila, and the second from Segovia.
Geography
Aldeadávila de la Ribera is located in the northwest of Salamanca. It borders with Portugal and is 100 km from the capital Salamanca.
It is part of the La Ribera region. It belongs to the Centro Duero Commonwealth and the judicial district of Vitigudino.
The towns of Aldeadávila de la Ribera, Corporario and Salto de Aldeadávila are integrated into its municipal area.
Its territory is included in the Arribes del Duero Natural Park, a protected natural area of great tourist and scientific attraction.
| Northwest: Bruçó (Portugal) | North: Vilarinho dos Galegos (Portugal) | Northeast: Pereña de la Ribera |
| West: Salt of Aldeadávila |  | This: Masueco |
| Southwest: Mieza | South: La Zarza de Pumareda | Sureste: Masueco |
Geology and geomorphology
Aldeadávila de la Ribera has a predominantly smooth and ridged relief, typical of the Zamora-Salmantina peneplain of the Meseta Norte, which contrasts with the deep fluvial encasements of the Duero River and its tributaries. Its average altitude ranges from 730 m to 670 m, with the highest point being Pico de la Cabeza (776 m) and the lowest point being the banks of the Duero River at the base of the Aldeadávila dam (190 m).
Geologically, Aldeadávila is located within the Iberian Massif, one of the largest geological units of the Iberian Peninsula. In its municipal area, two main types of rocks can be identified: granitoids, among which the granite massif in which the Aldeadávila dam is excavated stands out; and schists and slates of the Schist-Grauváquico Complex. There are also some disseminated pegmatites with mineralizations of some interest that were mined in the past.
The most important element of the landscape of Aldeadávila de la Ribera is the fluvial canyon of the Duero river, a deep incision of more than 100 km in length that constitutes one of the largest fluvial canyons of the Iberian Peninsula. This canyon is also one of the geosites recognized by the Global Geosites project of Spain.
Population centers
The municipality of Aldeadávila is made up of the town of Aldeadávila de la Ribera, where the town hall is located, and the neighboring towns of Corporario de la Ribera and the town of Salto de Aldeadávila, formerly better known as Santa Marina or The green.
Corporario is a town with just over 150 inhabitants located immediately next to Aldeadávila, so close to it that they practically form the same urban nucleus. Antonio Llorente says in his book "it can almost be considered a neighborhood of Aldeadávila" It was an independent municipality until 1972, when it was annexed to Aldeadávila mainly due to the lack of economic means to provide the minimum services obligatory. Now it does not have a town hall but continues to maintain, for example, its own patron saint festivals. Its church, one of the oldest in the province, is of singular beauty and a tourist recommendation.
El Salto de Aldeadávila is a small town built in the Douro Valley, dominated by the “Altos de Lagoaça”. It has existed since the 12th century due to the hermits installed in the Convent of La Verde, which after its abandonment was remodeled and reused as a hostel in the 50s. Today it has a population of around 20 people. Administratively, it has always depended on Aldeadávila and among its corners, without a doubt, the most interesting place is the rock that, according to legend, protected the blessed Santa Marina.
Symbols
Shield
The heraldic shield that represents the municipality was approved on November 6, 1992 with the following coat of arms:
«I hear a match. First, of gold with six slurry beads, placed in two poles. Second, with three venerations of silver on the stick. Silver and sugar wavy stitch. Tied of the Spanish Royal Crown»Official Gazette of Castile and Leon No. 6 of 11 January 1994
Flag
The city council has not yet adopted a flag for the municipality.
History
Middle Ages
The abundance of fountains in the «Barrio de Abajo», the fertile lands and the microclimate favored the settlement in Arab times. Arab legends abound throughout the region, their main themes are maidens, virgins, fortresses and wealth.
According to the University of Granada, the term «Aldea-Dauila» could have an unquestionable Arabic origin. The streets of this town, very old, maintain names of medieval resonance: "la Cilla", "Remoria", "Atalaya", "Peñas", "el Mimbrero", etc. From this origin, a 400-meter canvas of Arab fences is preserved, close to the Hermitage of La Santa, in danger of disappearing, as well as its old perimeter, which delimits the old neighborhoods "de Abajo", "de Arriba", "Peñas » and «The Watchtower». In the current main square there are still graves from that time.
It is, yes, a living silence that reigns here, I live because it rests on the sempiterno rumor of the Duero, which in pure being continuous ends up erasing from the consciousness of the one who collects it. There, in that shelter, the spirits of time, the begotten of care, went every day to sin without noise with their malice in eternity. Always the same river, the same rocks always, all unchangeable! When what surrounds us does not change, we end up feeling unchanged, to understand that it is to live a continual death, that "between life and death there is no space," as the inscription of the convent of Green prays... There is on the road a point that is called the mount of the friars; a rock formed in the form of a seat they call the seat of the keeper. There they also say that, coming Santa Marina persecuted of the Moors and tired of the way, when he came to a rock, he said to him: "Open up, peña closed, that Marina tired comes." In the burning rock an altar was placed to the saint, and on it the chapel of Santa Marina, close to the convent...Part of the story published in the bilbaine magazine 'Ecos Literarios' (19 March 1898), Miguel de Unamuno.
The Reconquest of the area, until then under Muslim rule, was carried out by the Kingdom of León, which arose from the Kingdom of Asturias of Don Pelayo and from which the County of Castilla, the Kingdom of Castilla, would later be subdivided and/or broken off. of Galicia and the Kingdom of Portugal. The repopulation of the conquered lands carried out by the kings of León proposed a layout very different from the current one, basing its development on the Galician repopulation model, which consisted of having many small villages very close to each other, a scheme that at the long made many of them economically unsustainable. In documents from 1265, "Simirera", "Aveto" or "Robredo de las Casas" (later "Robredo de Santo Domingo") are registered. In the XIV and small-caps">XV centuries, there were those of «Quadrilleros» with their own parish » (in Corporario de la Ribera), that of «Alcornocal» (next to the Alcornoque Treasure of Aldeadávila) and that of «La Revilla de Aldeadávila», which were abandoned over the centuries XVII and XVIII. Finally, those of «La Verde» (or «Santa Marina») and that of «Robredo de Santo Domingo» lasted until the XIX century. Thanks to the efforts of residents of Aldeadávila de la Ribera and La Zarza de Pumareda, they are beginning to rescue medieval remains of tombs and hermitages.
After the Reconquest, the area was not affected by major conflicts. It remained peacefully integrated into the Leonese crown, far from the conflicts with Castile because it was located in the westernmost extreme, next to the border with Portugal, with whom it did not have any notable conflicts either due to the natural border that the Duero river supposes.
The repopulation was carried out mostly by Asturian settlers, but also by Galicians and Castilians, who brought their culture and idiosyncrasies with them. As its place name could attest, Aldeadávila de la Ribera and Corporario were nuclei repopulated by settlers from Avila, the former, and the latter from Segovia, during the second half of the XII century, belonging to the Diocese of Salamanca in ecclesiastical matters and to the Kingdom of León in civil, military and administrative matters. Most authors label them as Segovian-Abulense place names.
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The history of Aldeadávila during its integration into the Leonese crown, tells us that like the rest of Salamanca towns on the border with Portugal and on the banks of the Duero, it belonged to the town and land council of Ledesma, represented by its medieval lords or of royalty in the Cortes of the Kingdom of León in 1188, considered the cradle of parliamentarianism worldwide. The first or one of the first historical documents preserved, in which Aldeadávila appears named, dates from 1265, a documentary copy from 1345, in which the «Yglesia Catedral de la ciudad de Salamanca» refers to the loan that has with "Aldea Dauila" for the work of the church.
With the death of Alfonso IX of León in 1230, his son Fernando III el Santo, who was already King of Castile, inherited the Kingdom of León, but maintained his own structures during the Modern Age, conserving both its institutions and its characteristics of territorial organization.
In 1270 the Convent of La Verde was founded by Franciscan friars, being abandoned in 1834 after the confiscation of Mendizábal.
Coinciding with the Treaty of Alcañices (1297), it is indicated that the council of Ledesma belonged to the Lordship of the Infante Pedro. Subsequently, in documents of the celebration of the Cortes of Castilla y León on July 22, 1315 in Burgos, we are told that the representatives of the town of Ledesma request the restitution to the council, with all their rights, of the villages of Dieza -Mieza de la Ribera-, Aldea d'Avila -Aldeadávila de la Ribera-, Darios -Corporario-, Cabeza de Furamontanos -Cabeza de Framontanos-, Penna -Pereña de la Ribera- and Villarino de Arias -Villarino de los Aires-, something to which the regency of the future King Alfonso XI agrees. The Courts of Valladolid in 1322, after the death of Infante Pedro, confirm the transfer of the region of La Ribera back to the council of Ledesma. These old texts make us think that these villages were fortified at that time, to avoid new Portuguese occupations such as those carried out in 1296 by King Dionisio I of Portugal, who occupied as far as Simancas (Valladolid) and later annexed the entire region of Riba- Coa. From this stately period at the end of the XIII century with the dynastic crisis in the Crown of León and Castilla on the death of Fernando IV, would come, among others, the old tower of Aldeadávila, which was a fortress that was increased and expanded at the end of the XV century and the beginning of the XVI. In addition to this, there were also important castles in Vilvestre, Barruecopardo (prior to 1212), Mieza de la Ribera, Masueco and Pereña.
During the reigns of Alfonso XI, Pedro I and Enrique II, the territory of the Arribes del Duero once again became manorial and had a military meaning. It is donated to a succession of bastard infants and future queens and kings, among them the infant Fernando Alfonso and Queen Leonor de Alburquerque who marries Fernando I of Aragon in 1393, uniting his lordship to that of the "five towns".
The definitive early medieval settlement of streets such as «Atalaya», «la Cilla», «Peñas» or «Remoria» seems to be related to the border defense that took place in the area during the XII, at which time there was a watchtower on a rocky promontory near the current tower. During the infantado of Don Pedro de Molina, regent of Alfonso XI, the population center was refortified with a fence of 830 meters of regular ellipsoidal perimeter, of which its layout and a canvas between the Hermitage of La Santa and the crossing are preserved. of the Watchtower The “Abajo” intramural neighborhood is a medieval and Renaissance labyrinth of narrow streets, stone paved patios, facades emblazoned with inscriptions and an endless number of typical Las Arribes houses that retain their character and for which time seems not to have passed, although some modern house that shadows the promenade. From them you can admire the tower and feel something of the admiration and fear that it should provoke in medieval vassals. The “de Arriba” neighborhood is even more labyrinthine and it is believed that in 1590 23 Moorish families were housed there, by decree of Felipe II.
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Modern Age
The second half of the XV century saw great prosperity in the area and an important redistribution of the population, being Ledesma, Aldeadávila, Villarino, Pereña, Masueco de la Ribera and Mieza the most populated nuclei. Perhaps for this reason, the area suffers abuses and attempts at manorialization by knights from Salamanca, as in the case of García de Ledesma, before 1494: «...so that García de Ledesma, a resident of Salamanca, may appear before the Council real and does not bother the residents of Aldea de Ávila and Masueco, with excommunications…».
Six Rhodes were created around 1500, in the region of La Ribera those of Villarino and Mieza, although shortly before 1534 that of Villarino was subdivided, creating that of Mazuecos -Masueco-. Each roda had the right to a notary public to celebrate public deeds, however some towns such as Aldeadávila also had the right to a notary, as stated in the 1501 agreement signed between the bachelor of Aldeadávila and the Convent of the Poor Clare Nuns of Salamanca. Around 1600, a Lordship was established in the area, held by Alfonso Fernández de Villarino de los Aires by royal donation, who transmitted it to his son Gonzalo and later to the explorer of Peru Martín de Ledesma Valderrama. Among its places and its terms were Mazuelos -Masueco-, Aldea Dávila -Aldeadávila-, Corpario -Corporario-, La Vídola, Fuentes, Villasbonas -Villasbuenas-, La Badina, Villamuerto -Villarmuerto-, Grandes, Grandenos and Herbalejos, among others. The urban intervention of Martín de Ledesma in Villarino was very important around 1624 «and what I bought from Gonzalo Fernández, fixed by Alfonso Fernández de Villarino, in the said place of Villarino, half of the place that I made new inside in the corral of the same houses of the said place of Villarino».
Aldeadávila achieved the status of a town during the XVIII century, when it belonged to the Order of Santiago, in the demarcation of «Partido y Vara de Castrotorafe» which makes the population reach a new period of prosperity.
Contemporary Age
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The War of Independence, which began in 1808, brought significant damage to the area, as the Masueco de la Ribera College and the roof of the Aldeadávila church, among others, were destroyed. There were important revolts against the French army in the Vitigudino region.
The northern part of the historic region of La Ribera was always communicated with Ledesma and Salamanca through the Masueco bridge, on the L-5 route that linked Ledesma with Aldeadávila and the convent of La Verde, a route that It attracted the Jacobean population and pilgrims, something that has been reflected in the Elizabethan architectural style, mainly in Pereña and Masueco de la Ribera.
With the territorial division of Spain in 1833, in which the current provinces are created, Aldeadávila is framed within the Leonese Region, formed by the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca, of a merely classificatory nature, without administrative operation, which Broadly speaking, it would come to collect the old demarcation of the Kingdom of León (without Galicia or Asturias).
The writer and rector of the University of Salamanca, Miguel de Unamuno was in love with Las Arribes. His first visit began in Masueco, the second in Fermoselle, between 1894 and 1902. He speaks with great affection of the area and dedicates a few paragraphs to Aldeadávila: «From Masueco we went to Aldeadávila de la Ribera, the court of this region, the village for the neighbors. And after spending the night in it, we started the march to the retreat of La Verde... retreat in a time of minor friars... On the postern, above the door and under a shield with the five Franciscan stigmata it reads: & #34;Between life and death there is no space; in an instant everything that lives in the world ends. Year MDCCLXIX"».
Dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975)
In 1956 work began on what is known as Salto de Aldeadávila. Iberduero builds a village to shelter the families of the employees in the construction of the Aldeadávila dam next to the old Convent of Santa María de La Verde, which is restored and converted into a hostel. The set of works carried out to raise the dam lasted until 1963, just during the period of autarky of the Franco dictatorship, at the beginning of the opening towards the outside. The first tasks of diverting the river are undertaken overlapping in time with the completion of the works on Salto de Saucelle. They successfully face several floods of the river, the most important took place during the last days of December 1961, in which a maximum flood of 9000 m³/s was recorded. It was quite a record for that time because according to historical records, these floods usually occur with a period of around 100 years (the previous one of similar dimensions occurred in 1860). On November 17, 1962, the plant started up for the first time and on December 30, 1963, it began to operate at maximum power. In its day it was the largest of its kind in Western Europe and its implementation meant doubling the total production of Iberduero. Francisco Franco, head of the Spanish state, António de Oliveira Salazar, head of the Portuguese government, Jorge Vigón Suero-Díaz, minister of public works, Pedro de Careaga y Baseabe, president of Iberduero, and the civil governors of the provinces of Salamanca and Zamora among others.
In 1965, the end of the film "Doctor Zhivago" was filmed at the Aldeadávila dam, in which some impressive images of unbalming were shown, and during a few days in the summer of 1972 the final scenes of the medium-length film "La cabina" were recorded. », directed by Antonio Mercero, in which the hydroelectric power station appears as well as the galleries, the road and the esplanade of the «Great Vault» through which it is accessed. In the plot, the place is a warehouse for defective cabins where the character played by José Luis López Vázquez is taken.
Between 1983 and 1986 the works of the second power plant "Aldeadávila II" took place, turning to pray in the rock through a tunnel opened by the gallery through which "Aldeadávila I" is accessed.
On July 21, 1972, the incorporation of the municipality of Corporario to that of Aldeadávila was approved due to the lack of financial means to provide the minimum mandatory services.
Democracy
With the arrival of democracy, life in Aldeadávila remained without major changes and hardly any noteworthy events have occurred. Between 1983 and 1986, the expansion works of the Aldeadávila dam were carried out, with the installation of a new group of turbines and the creation of a second hydroelectric production plant, Aldeadávila II. Today the Aldeadávila dam, with its two plants, has an average production of 2.4 billion GWh per year and is the largest hydroelectric dam in Spain and one of the largest in Western Europe.
In 1987, the national government wanted to launch the IPES project in the municipality, an experimental radioactive waste laboratory that was to be developed in the granite cavern of the Aldeadávila hydroelectric power station. But the unanimous rejection of society and the increase in political tension led to the kidnapping of the Vice President of the Provincial Council of Salamanca, Luis Calvo Rengel, on April 3, 1987. The politician was held for 30 hours in the plenary hall of the Aldeadávila town hall after going to deliver a letter of support for the demonstrations against the project in Las Arribes. A group of neighbors decided to retain him as a measure of pressure on the highest levels of the Government, forcing the riot police to put an end to the kidnapping after 30 hours of retention. In a later interview, Luis Calvo Rengel recalls: "They warned me of that I did not go to Adeadávila, that things were tense, but my obligation was to explain something that was clear and that is that if the laboratory test was positive, the nuclear cemetery would be installed in the area ». A few months later, citizens of Aldeadávila continued to pressure the IPES project and used explosives to knock down a power line turret, which ended up leading the government to resign from the project in October of the same year, without any criminal consequences. for the kidnapping or for any of the other actions committed. All these events, along with the peaceful mobilizations and demonstrations that took place in the municipality throughout 1987, have been defined by the geologist and writer from Salamanca, Daniel H. Barreña, as the Aldeadávila events. His novel IPES recreates the kidnapping of Luis Calvo Rengel and the tense hours that were lived in the municipality between April 2 and 3, 1987.
Demographics
| Population development in Aldeadávila de la Ribera between 1900 and 2021 |
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Source: Spanish National Statistical Institute - Graphical development by Wikipedia. |
In the 1960s there was a significant demographic increase in the region due to the large number of people who came to work on the construction sites of the Aldeadávila dam and the Saucelle dam. For this reason, in the population graph of the municipality of Aldeadávila de la Ribera a considerable peak is perceived. Iberduero built the town of Salto de Aldeadávila to house engineers and workers, but the vast majority of them left as soon as the works were finished, which is why only a few people live today.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, Aldeadávila de la Ribera had, as of December 31, 2018, a total population of 1,239 inhabitants, of whom 624 were men and 615 women. Of this figure, most correspond to the town of Aldeadávila, which groups 84% of the population of the municipality, dividing the rest between the annex of Corporario, with 185 inhabitants, and that of Salto de Aldeadávila, with 14. Regarding the year 2000, the census reflects 1702 inhabitants, of which 856 were men and 846 women. Therefore, the loss of population in the municipality for the period 2000-2018 has been 463 inhabitants, a 28% decrease, specifically 399 inhabitants in Aldeadávila, 19 in Corporario and 45 in El Salto.
Monuments and places of interest
Aldeadávila Dam
The best known place in the municipality and the most visited is possibly the Aldeadávila dam. It is part of the hydroelectric system known as Saltos del Duero; It is located in the area known as Arribes del Duero, with base slopes that in some sections exceed 400 m. Scenes from audiovisual productions such as "Doctor Zhivago" or "La cabina" by José Luis López Vázquez have been recorded in it. It was inaugurated by Francisco Franco on July 9, 1964, one year after its completion. It can be seen from the viewpoint of the dam, the Picón de Felipe and the viewpoint of El Fraile. With 2,400 GWh per year, it is the dam with the highest electricity production in Spain.
Parish Church of San Salvador
The so-called Torre de Aldeadávila would rise as a military fortress to defend the town in the XIII century under the lordship of the Infante Pedro de Molina y Aragón, conserving a Romanesque door on the north face, and walls more than two meters wide, as well as four strong double buttresses. Already in the XVI century it was joined with the church, forming the bell tower, and the beautiful door on the north face with Ionic columns was made. This castle experienced war episodes of the infants Sancho Pérez, Pedro de Molina and the era of the banderías with García de Ledesma.
The parish church of San Salvador began to be erected in the XIII century before 1265, on a loan from the cathedral church of Salamanca, as a convent of the fortress, conserving the door in a semicircular arch and eight buttresses that support the gravity arches of the roof. A great reform was carried out between the XV and XVI centuries. It has a baroque altarpiece from the 17th century century and chapels added in the 18th century.
Other historical heritage sites
The town of Salto de Aldeadávila is undoubtedly one of the most picturesque places in the area. It is located on the road by car to the Aldeadávila dam. It has the La Verde Convent, also known as the Santa Marina Convent, built from the XII to the XVIII.
The Encinar necropolis is an early medieval archaeological site made up of a total of 5 sarcophagus-type tombs that are scattered on a hillside, halfway between the municipality and the Convent of La Verde.
Other outstanding religious buildings in the municipality are the parish church of Corporario, from the XIII century and XIV, with a late Roman stele and a fragment of an anthropomorphic tomb, the hermitage of Santo Cristo del Humilladero, from the XVII century, the hermitage of La Santa or Nuestra Señora de las Huertas, with a beautiful portico from the 18th century century and a Baroque altarpiece from the Convent of Santa Marina, the transepts of Historical Stations of the Cross, from the 16th and 18th centuries, or the hermitage of San Sebastián, from the XIII to the XIX century, with medieval inscriptions, which has been set up as a tourist office.
Among the civil buildings, the most noteworthy are the Palace of the Marqués del Caballero, from the small-caps">XVIII century, with coats of arms of the Caballero family, the historic building of the customs house, from 1739, which was a second-class customs house with a boat and which was expanded in 1866 for the export of cattle; or the Palace of Manuel Caballero del Pozo (1790-1800), located on Calle Poza, as well as the different huts historical disseminated by all the municipal term.
A canvas of the Arab fence from the small-caps">X century has been preserved, a 400-meter section near the Hermitage of La Santa, made up of a wall and embankment, and two amputated cubes of the old wall.
Recreation areas
El Llano de la Bodega is a park located 5 km from the town. It has stone tables and chairs for snacks, stone huts, etc. It is a natural space adapted for recreation. From the Llano de la Bodega you can walk to the Picón de Felipe and the Fraile viewpoint.
The ethnographic museum of Las Majadas Arribeñas can be reached by following the road signs for the Las Arribes environmental cruise. The visit serves to learn about the traditional ways of life of the goatherds, in the sheepfolds or stone buildings where the goats lived with their shepherd, also a center for the promotion of this profession in the region of La Ribera.
Going down towards the banks of the Duero from the ethnographic museum, we find the Playa del Rostro beach. It is an artificial sandbank settled in a meander of the Duero and which has been for years one of the most visited areas of the Arribes del Duero Natural Park for offering, among other things, activities such as canoeing and boat trips on the Duero in the environmental cruise Corazón de Arribes. In addition, it is equipped with stone chairs and tables from where you can rest and appreciate the landscape. Before arriving, you can take a detour to Picón de Mariota.
In recent years, the El Rocoso recreational area has been enabled, in the old El Rocoso reservoir, which was used to supply the town, but which today serves as an inland beach, suitable for bathing, a place to leisure, recreation and fishing, which has a lawn, bathrooms and a municipally licensed catering establishment.
Viewpoints
Felipe, Felipon. — Popular song |
The “Picón de Felipe” viewpoint is the most famous viewpoint in the town and one of the most impressive in the Arribes del Duero Natural Park as it is located in the heart of the Arribes, the stretch where the greatest unevenness can be seen, of around 400-500 m. It is said that many years ago an inhabitant of Aldeadávila named Felipe committed suicide from the top of the picón, on the banks of the Duero River, because her girlfriend was Portuguese and he could not be with her, hence the name of the viewpoint. According to another, less tragic version of the legend, Felipe wanted to tear down this enormous rock so that the stones would act as a bridge and thus be able to cross to Portugal to see his beloved. From it you get a very wide view of the deep Duero canyon and the Portuguese arrivals as well as the Aldeadávila dam in the left background. It is reached on foot through a path that leads us to the picón from the Llano de la Bodega, where there is a parking lot to leave the car. It is an important place in the outcome of the novel "IPES", by Daniel H. Barreña.
From the "mirador del Fraile" you can get views of the La Verde valley and it would be called that way because there would be a rock known as the friar's chair from which you could watch the comings and goings of the Franciscan friars in his orchard of the Convent of Santa Marina de La Verde. It is possible to reach almost the same viewpoint by car along a road that leads to an Ibredrola facility. It is unsuitable for people who suffer from vertigo because from it you can get a good perspective on the cleft where the Aldeadávila dam is located, as well as Felipe's picón.
The “Aldeadávila dam viewpoint” is located next to the control building of the Aldeadávila I substation. You must drive to the town of El Salto and then continue following the signs for the dam. At a certain point on the road is the entrance to the tunnel through which the plant is accessed, known as "La Gran Bóveda", to which only Iberdrola workers are allowed to enter. To your right, the road continues to the substation where there is a small car park from where you can already see a panoramic view of the Duero, although not in all its splendor. Both the road and the parking lot are small, so access by bus is not recommended. Once in the car park, there is a staircase that gives access to a small path that ends at the viewpoint, from where you can see the dam at our feet better than from anywhere else, as well as the reservoir boxed in at the top. Upon accessing the stairs, a wall reads «Twenty-five years of Franco's peace made the construction of this Aldeadávila waterfall possible. MCMLXIV”.
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To get to the "Rupurupay viewpoint" there is a circular route of about 9 km that begins at the Hermitage of La Santa, which is reached by Calle de Abajo, and ends reaching the town again by Calle Iberdrola. From the viewpoint you can get a nice picture of a curve of the Duero. The route is signposted in some sections and along the way you can see streams, orchards and the traditional huts or sheepfolds of Las Arribes, both square and circular, used as shelter by shepherds. About 400 m after the viewpoint and walking along the side of the Duero canyon there is a crossroads, the one on the left leads to the mouth of the Remolino stream, an area where the views become even more spectacular and where This stream forms waterfalls frequented by lovers of canyoning.
The other two relevant viewpoints located in the north of the municipality are the “Rupitín viewpoint” and the “Lastrón viewpoint”. The route to reach them also begins at the Hermitage of La Santa. Having traveled about 3 km, you come to a fork from which two paths start. On the right Lastrón, on the left Rupitín. This last one is possibly the viewpoint from where one of the most stylized views of the Duero is obtained as it passes through Aldeadávila, since you can see a fairly long section in which there are several small meanders. Once you reach the viewpoint, approximately 1 km from the fork, you can choose to turn around or continue along a path that crosses the forest located on the slope of the valley, which runs for a drop of about 150 m to reach the picón from Felipe in 5 km or to the town in 10 km.
The “picón de Mariota”, located on lands that used to be the municipal area of Corporario, is a meander of the Duero. To get to the viewpoint by car or on foot from Corporario, follow the signs for Playa del Rostro to a point on the road where it is no longer paved, continuing straight on instead of continuing towards the beach to the left. After about 100 m we take a path to the right that leads us to it. From Masueco there is also another 12 km route that reaches Picón de Mariota. It passes through the Pozo de los Humos and then descends to walk next to the Duero along a path that ends at the aforementioned point where the road is no longer paved.
The «Palomar viewpoint» is located in the heart of the city, it is reached by Salas Pombo street, at the confluence with Sierra street, where there are access stairs. You can see the urban complex of the town where the tower of the church predominates.
Culture
Las Arribes constitutes one of the regions with the greatest cultural personality within the province of Salamanca, as it is distinguished, among other things, by the peculiarity of its landscape, its folkloric manifestations and its architecture as well as, in the past, the linguistic features dialects derived from the Asturian language.
Speak
In the entire region of La Ribera, there was once a deep and deep-rooted influence of the western Asturian language, specifically a dialect of this was used, the Ribera language. Perhaps the most outstanding reminiscence of this linguistic variety is the song known as "Toru de Aldeadávila" collected by Dámaso Ledesma in his "Cancionero Salmantino".
Toreru throws the cape —Toru de Aldeadávila |
Professor Antonio Llorente Maldonado de Guevara recounts in his book «Estudio sobre la habla de la Ribera: (Comarca salmantina ribereña del Duero)» that in 1943 during his stay in the region he already observed the gradual loss of speech characteristic of the area and noted that he slightly noticed that in Villarino, Aldeadávila and Corporario the older generations and the uneducated people over forty were beginning to be the ones who most completely changed the final, initial and protonic vowels "o" for "u". and "e" for "i", a generational difference that he said was noticeable "more than anything in the large number of aldeavilucos who study in religious seminaries and novitiates, since it was the most pious town in the entire province".
Among the most characteristic phenomena, apart from the one already mentioned, he indicated others such as the loss of the final «r» of the infinitive before enclitic pronouns (matalu, decilu, cometí, pegali), the use of Leonese gerunds in the second conjugation (caendu, vertendu, movendu, etc), the loss of the intervocalic “d” in all phonetics (partíu, comíu, parei, maera) as well as the use of Leonese imperatives (andái, hacéi, senti). Among his own lexicon, he indicated words such as "mortocón", "haramascas", "remanecer", "esprisionis", "enfiembri", "bufa", "recadar", "entinar" or "henechu".
Architecture
The towns of La Ribera have their own traditional architecture, the result of their geography, their microclimate and their people. One of the factors why it has been better preserved than in other areas may have been its border location, isolated from the main cities. Within the common pattern of the region, Aldeadávila is distinguished by the existence of some well-treated stone buildings, with numerous elements of masonry, some of them medieval, in peaceful corners and streets delimited by an early medieval perimeter. Among the most representative examples would be the palace of the Marqués del Caballero on Calle Sor Alegría or the palace of the del Pozo family, on Calle Poza.
The typical riverside house of habitual residence presents a single façade since it is located next to other adjacent buildings. Two aesthetic forms are very characteristic, painted white (formerly with lime) or with exposed stone masonry. Protruding from the second floor is a large balcony characteristically adorned with flower pots that shelters the front door immediately below from the rain. Next to it there is usually a "poyo" or seat. In some cases, instead of the balcony, there is a window adorned with two "andirons" or stones as a sill.
The balcony is perhaps the most characteristic element, although there are few examples left as it is the most difficult piece to maintain. It can be roofed or unroofed. Sometimes small or large, depending on the dimensions of the dwelling, and always supported by ancient corbels. Among the examples that respect the characteristic physiognomy well could be the houses at numbers 7 and 15 of Calle José Antonio Caballero.
Over the years, the interior of the houses has evolved towards a more modern layout, but in terms of external appearance, towns with defining traditional architecture tend to seek to maintain the aesthetics of yesteryear to attract tourism.
The transepts are also very characteristic, as are the huts and the curtains of the field. The huts are vaulted buildings, circular or square, which serve to shelter the shepherds from the rain who were surprised in the middle of the field. The curtains, very representative of the landscape, are farms for agricultural and/or livestock use that are delimited by characteristic stone walls.
Bull Festival
It is the main festival of Aldeadávila in honor of San Bartolomé (August 24) with great prominence of bullfighting shows.
The festivities begin on August 22 with the famous desenjaule in the Prado de los Toros. On the 23rd the coronation of ladies and queens takes place, and on the night of the 24th the clubs participate in the parade of floats. It consists of making an elaboration in a trailer and this runs through the streets of the town in full view of all the neighbors. These are presented to the contest in which they opt for economic prizes according to the votes that each one receives, from the judges that the city council chooses. In 2016, awards for best costume, best animation, and effort award were included.
All four days there are running of the bulls and bullfights. The closures are in the morning. The bulls are led on horseback from the Prado de los Toros to the town square through various streets of the town. In the afternoon the bulls are fought.
Every night during the festivities there is a festival in the square and various activities are held. August 28 is the last day of the festivities. It is called the burial of the sardine. A procession is made with San Bartolomé and with a coffin that will be burned at the end of the tour.
San Blaise
It is the festival in honor of San Blas (February 3), it is celebrated in Corporario.
The Bufa de San Antón
This is an ancestral rite or celebration of pre-Roman origin, possibly Veto, performed around the festival of San Antón, when according to legend it was necessary to drive away the evil spirits that stalked livestock and crops. It is the only winter masquerade held in the province of Salamanca and shares its origin with other similar ones held in the provinces of Zamora, Ourense, Extremadura or Trás-os-Montes. According to the ethnographer and historian Bernardo Calvo Brioso, La Bufa is "the oldest treasure of Aldeadávila, a hallmark and most representative banner, a magazine to the way of life of the ancestors, an intangible cultural heritage that must be preserved".
Many children form a group forming the procession of the "buffoneros" or "bufantes", who with cowbells, colored ribbons and instruments to make noise, scare off two people disguised as "la Urga" and "el Judas", with the aspect of a witch and of an animal respectively, which represent evil and the transmission of diseases to animals and crops.
It was a pagan tradition so deeply rooted in the area that when the Christian faith was installed, they had no other option than to welcome it among themselves given the impossibility of its eradication. The burlap clothing simulating ecclesiastical clothing and the miter-shaped hoods used by the buffants incorporate a criticism or mockery of the Church that was later added to the festival, specifically of the Bishop of Salamanca and the Franciscans who lived in the convent. from Santa Marina de La Verde. In the staging, the Portuguese influence is not lacking either, in this case represented in the masks and in the painting of the faces, which made them unrecognizable before the evil first, and before the ecclesiastical power later. During the synod of 1497, the Church prohibited its celebration under threat of excommunication to those who dared to continue with it, but the villagers kept it until 1975, the year in which it lost steam. The city council decided to recover it in 2010 and since then it can be considered once again consolidated with relative success among young people and the smallest of the town.
In recent years the staging has been preceded by a play that represents and narrates the history of the tradition to the attendees. In addition to the roles already mentioned, there are the butlers of the event, personified by the councilors for tourism and celebrations of the Aldeadávila town hall, Fernando Redondo and María del Sol Sánchez, who offer all the participants a chocolate with biscuits as a treat. Neighbor Ángel Arroyo was the last mayordomo until 1975, the year after which the party went into a dead time.
Holy Week
On Easter Sunday the whole town goes out to spend the day in the countryside. The tradition is to take a hard-boiled egg and roll it until the shell breaks.
In cinema and literature
Aldeadávila has been the scene of numerous filming of national and international productions:
- The movie Dr. Zhivago, adaptation of the homonymous novel by Russian writer Boris Pasternak, led by David Lean, was shot during 1965 in various parts of Spain, including Aldeadávila. The final scene of the film was recorded in the dam of Aldeadávila, which appears also unpacking its waters during the final credit titles.
- The final part of the film The cabin, by Antonio Mercero, it was shot in 1972 in the interior galleries of the hydroelectric plant of Aldeadávila, which pretended to be a warehouse to which the defective cabins such as the one that catches the protagonist.
- The Aldeadávila Dam was in 2018 the place chosen for the shooting of some of the climax scenes of the film Terminator: Dark Fate, sixth delivery of the Terminator movie franchise. Produced by James Cameron and directed by Tim Miller.
- Aldeadávila de la Ribera is also the central stage of the novel IPES, by Daniel H. Barreña, in which he recreates the kidnapping that lived in 1987 the second vice president of the Provincial Council of Salamanca, Luis Calvo Rengel.
- In 2020 the 30 coins series, by director Álex of the Church, chose the Aldeadávila dam for some of its locations.
Economy
The town's economy is based primarily on agriculture. The cultivation of grapes and olives are traditional. Quality wine and oil are manufactured and marketed with these crops. The introduction of the olive tree comes from Arab times, while that of the grape received a very important boost in the final centuries of the Middle Ages.
Livestock is also part of the traditional economy of the town.
From 1964, thanks to the construction of the Aldeadávila dam, many people found work there, and the job market began to diversify.
Rural tourism, constantly growing thanks to nature, is a new source of income for the town. Likewise, the hotel offer of newly built rural houses within the urban area is very varied.
Administration and politics
Municipal elections
The mayor of Aldeadávila is a full-time mayor, which means that he does not combine the mayoralty with any other job, and he earns 25,529.70 euros per year (2017).
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