Babilafuente

Babilafuente is a Spanish municipality and town in the province of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castilla y León. It is integrated within the region of Las Villas. It belongs to the Peñaranda judicial district and the Cantalapiedra and Las Villas Zone Commonwealth.

Its municipal area is made up of a single population center, occupies a total area of 22.60 km² and has a population of 936 inhabitants (INE 2022).

Toponymy

The first forms with which the town is documented date from the beginning of the XIII century, during the reign of Alfonso IX de León, when the town is listed as Vaguilafointe (in May 1215), Baguilafuont (in November 1216) and Baguila Fonte (in December 1229). As a derivation of them, in 1281 the form Baguila Fuente appears, more similar to the current Babilafuente, which would have evolved from those place names with which the town is mentioned in the documentation of the century XIII.

Geography

House consistorial

It has a spring with high quality mineral water. They are classified by their chemical composition as lithinic sodium bicarbonate waters - alkaline and diuretic bicarbonate waters, containing a much higher amount of lithin than many others that enjoy a great reputation.

Alkaline waters have a double main function: they neutralize hyperacidity and eliminate toxic products that all nutrition engenders. Neurasthenia, obesity, diabetes, rheumatism, gout and many other conditions due to nutritional disturbances are alleviated and even cured with the use of alkaline waters. Urine loaded with urea (which forms that brick-colored sediment) or phosphates (with whitish sedimentation) becomes transparent and abundant. Litin duplicates the effects of alkaline waters, effective in cases of deforming rheumatism.

The locator specialization of waters, bicarbonate, sodium, litinic, is in the calculations, whether they are biliary, vesical or renal. It prevents and in many cases causes the elimination of stones or their slow dissolution. With use, the blood becomes alkaline, avoiding the formation of urate, toxins are eliminated from the abdominal viscera, regulating the dispositions and the ailments that the acidic environment determines are avoided or cured. Because they are colorless, transparent, and are excellent table waters, they are marketed under the registered trademark of Babilafuente.

History

Church of Saint Benedict

It lies on a flat and grateful land, four leagues from the great city of Salamanca, the beautiful town of Babilafuente. This, among many other and distinguished privileges, enjoys the honorable anticipation of being the Capital of seven other very neighboring ones, which are all of this territory appreciable additions to the County of Monte Rey, which was attached to the great House of the Most Excellent Lady María Teresa. Álvarez de Toledo y Haro, Duchess of Alba”, the great house covered from the houses that are attached to the arch to a large part of the current school.

Until the beginning of the XIII century we have no real evidence of the existence of this locality. It is given to us by a document from the Salamanca Cathedral Archives according to which a certain Sancha Gómez, on May 3, 1215, sold the estate of "Vaguilafointe" to Don Juan, dean of Salamanca and the Cabildo, with oxen, loaves, crops, pastures, vineyards and other belongings; reigning Alfonso IX of León and in his name in Salamanca his brother Sancho Fernández.

Another document dated 1223 includes this “Villa” in the Cuarto de Valdevilloria. This condition of Villa, seems to be a distinction from the king to the holder of the Señorío. Today this title is maintained as a merely honorific without any kind of privileges.

Advancing in the history of Babilafuente, it can be said that the town was sold to Don Rodrigo Maldonado, lord of Babilafuente and Avedillo, later passing to his descendant, the commoner Don Pedro Maldonado. After the community process, in 1523 Carlos V sold the territory to Don Alonso de Acevedo y Zúñiga, remaining linked to the Ducal House of Alba.

Of other historical events, such as the War of Independence, Don Benito Pérez Galdós already does the honor of inserting the Villa in his fictionalized account of the national epic The Battle of the Arapiles.

During the French withdrawal when leaving Salamanca and prior to the battle of Los Arapiles, on June 21, 1812, with General Marmont at the head, the French set fire to Babilafuente and neighboring towns, causing serious havoc and burning the harvests, in addition to great damage to the church.

With the creation of the current provinces in 1833, Babilafuente was included in the province of Salamanca, within the Leonese Region.

Demographics

Graphic of demographic evolution of Babilafuente between 1842 and 2022

Rule population (1842-1991, except 1857 and 1860 which is a de facto population) or resident population (2001-2011) according to the Population Censuses since 1842.Population according to the municipal register of 2022 of the INE.

Economy

Bioethanol plant

The economy of the municipality revolves around agriculture, livestock and services, with rural tourism establishments, as well as a spa whose use of mineral-medicinal waters dates back to the year 1752.

Likewise, one of the main engines of the municipality's economy is the existing bioethanol plant in the same, owned by Vertex Bionergy, forming part of the venture capital fund Trilantic Europe (buyer of the plant). Previously, The plant had been owned by Abengoa since 2009, when this business group acquired half of the plant from Ebro Foods, with which it had previously formed a company in 2000 in which both groups had a 50% stake for the development of biofuels activity in Babilafuente, having started up the plant in 2006.

Administration and politics

Municipal elections

Culture

Parties

• San Blas (3 February)
• San Roque (16 August)
• Fifth Party (1 May)