Navamorales

Navamorales is a Spanish municipality and town in the province of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castilla y León. It is integrated into the Guijuelo region and the Alto Tormes sub-region. It belongs to the judicial district of Béjar.

Its municipal area is made up of a single population center, it occupies a total area of 17.53 km² and according to the demographic data collected in the municipal register prepared by the INE in 2017, it has a population of 64 inhabitants.

It is crossed by the Corneja River and the Tormes River, the former flowing into it. It belongs to the Alto Tormes natural region and borders Puente del Congosto (next to Bercimuelle, currently a district of the latter), Valdemolinos, Villar de Corneja, Santa María del Berrocal, La Horcajada and El Tejado.

Demographics

Graphic of demographic evolution of Navamorals between 1900 and 2022

Source: Spanish National Statistical Institute - Graphical development by Wikipedia.

History

Dolmen of El Torrión.

Prehistory

In the municipality, settlement has been documented since Prehistory, with some discoveries of hypothetically Paleolithic lithic material. There is a dolmen of Neolithic chronology. Cogotas-type materials and maritime-type bell-shaped ceramics have been documented.

There is a Chalcolithic site and another from the Bronze Age investigated in surveys carried out during the year 1998.

Roman times

At the time of the Roman conquest the area was occupied by the vettones. There is also a late Roman settlement, with a small nucleus in which findings from Terra Sigilata Hispánica and numismatic finds were documented that could be located in the century. IV d. C. It is possible that there was also a settlement from the Visigothic period, although it is not sufficiently documented.

Middle Ages

Regarding the Islamic period, there is hardly any information. Only one Arab coin from a much later chronology has been found since it is from the 19th century. It does seem that there would be certain place names that could be referred to this period.

Roman coins.

Moroccan Felus of Sultan Mohamed IV of the year 1860 (1277 of the Hegira) found in Navamorales.

There were two population centers (Las Casillas and Las Berrocosas) that would have existed between the end of the Late Middle Ages and the beginning of the XIX century , in addition to the hermitage of Santas Justa and Rufina (whose carvings can be seen today in the Parish Church) that the council decided to move from its original location (the area that today receives the place name) to the site of the current cemetery. Said decision is made in 1695 and the work would be finished around 1743, as recorded in the documentation of the municipal archive.

Alfonso VII (1105-1157), king of Castile and León, on his death separated the two kingdoms and by establishing the limits between them on the border (in what was then called Extremadura de Extrema Durii = "beyond the Duero"), granted Castilla the area of the Sierra de Béjar up to the Quinea or de la Plata road. This area of the Sierra de Béjar, where Navamorales is located, came to belong to Castilla, forming part of the Ávila council, which will be in charge of the repopulation of the region and also of its head, Béjar, repopulation carried out by Castilians, mainly by people from Avila alfoz.

There are different versions of the "legendary" about the origins of the municipality. The most widespread speaks of the unification of several smaller nuclei that would correspond to the previously mentioned places. However, since this version did not exist at the same time, it is ruled out. Probably the origins of the municipality should be located, at the earliest, in the Repopulation processes derived from the Reconquest and, surely, in later moments around the century XV d. c.

Regarding repopulation, Navamorales seems to be a peculiar case. It seems that in the first years of repopulation this area of Alto Tormes, being closer to the mountains, was a dangerous, insecure place. The native inhabitants sought refuge in the mountains so as not to submit to Christian power, raising cattle and raiding Christian towns. For this reason, Alfonso VII in 1140 ordered the burning of the sierra in an extension of 70 km. These settlers abandoned their places and settled on the flat lands in coexistence with the newly arrived settlers; This would be the hypothesis of the medievalist Ángel Barrios.

Another hypothesis, following José María Mínguez, could indicate that with the deterioration of the situation of the Mozarabs at the end of the IX century some would emigrate to the North, towards areas under Christian control in such a way that they would contribute to the colonization of the Leonese territory and in other cases in " no man's land" as would be the case of the current Navamorales area. In this sense, J.Mª Mínguez cites place names from this area of the Sierra Salamanca such as Medinilla, Navamorisca... The place name Navamorales would indicate precisely this, a Moorish origin, "moro" (as well as Bercimuelle, Medinilla and Navamorisca). "Nava", according to the royal academy, is a word of pre-Roman origin that means "land without trees and flat, sometimes swampy, generally located between mountains".

Virgin of the Rosary. Navamorales (Salamanca, Spain). Second half s. XVI. Unknown author.

Modern and Contemporary Age

It is possible, although we do not know it, that the inhabitants of the then village of Navamorales conserved their beliefs and customs for some time. In any case, in the XV century (after three centuries) they were already fully integrated and formed part of the legal-administrative unit from the rest of the Villa and Land of La Puente del Congosto.

Some of the first documented news that we have are the ecclesiastical documents of the diocese of Ávila and the Parish of Puente del Congosto. The church of Nuestra Señora de la Natividad was completed, in its first phase, in the year 1506. This parish was dependent on the Iglesia Matriz de Puente del Congosto and the current patron saint is the Virgen del Rosario, although until the beginning of the century XX was the Virgin of the Nativity. The latter is the owner of the temple and co-patron of the town. After her restoration in 2016 her image has been replaced on the main altar, for which she was expressly sculpted in the 18th century . The Church was already finished in 1507 in its first phase, as reflected in a lawsuit over tithes from 1613 preserved in the Diocesan Archive of Ávila and cited by Tomás Sánchez.

Navamorales ceased to be part of the province of Ávila to become part of the province of Salamanca after becoming part of the territories of the Dukes of Alba at the end of the century XVI, made thanks to which Navamorales became part of the Kingdom of León, depending since then on Salamanca for the vote in Cortes. Until then it had belonged to Ávila since its reconquest and repopulation. However, the creation of the current provinces in 1833 only reaffirmed the passage of Navamorales to Leonese territory that occurred two centuries earlier, leaving the town within the province of Salamanca and the Leonese Region.

Elder altarpiece of the Nativity Church of Navamorales (Salamanca, Spain). Work of Lucas Barragán Ortega. 1730-32.

Navamoral Pendon, 2008.

There are several interesting documentary sources to learn about the history of the municipality practically from its origin: some excellent and complete municipal archives (computerized, restored and classified in the 90s by the Salamanca Provincial Council) and the parish archives. On the other hand, we also have information from the Ensenada Cadastre (1751) with abundant information on the population and economic activities.

Culture

Parties

The main festivals in the municipality are those of the patron saint, the Virgen del Rosario, on the first weekend of October. However, traditionally there were many more festivals than with the process of rural emigration and depopulation of the municipality, in addition to the changes in traditional economic activities have been lost.

There were also important festivals, at least until the middle of the XIX century, those of Saints Justa and Rufina and those of the Novietela (a small carving of the Virgin Mary that is currently preserved in the altarpiece of the right Nave of the parish).

Traditions

Regarding festivals less linked to the Catholic religion, there was the blessing of the loaves or the crosses, a kind of small pilgrimage intended to bless the "leaf" in cultivation that year. On the other hand, there were some like Cachetía, of course the carnivals or those of the fifths. In those of the Quintos, a common practice was carried out in many areas of the Meseta: running the roosters. The young quintos had to pass under a horizontal rope hung at a certain height riding a cavalry (horse, mule, donkey). From the tape tied by their legs, the roosters hung; the fifths, when passing under at a gallop, had to tear off the heads of those roosters. In the last years of this practice, the roosters were replaced by cloth ribbons. As popular games in the town there were/are some such as Marro (especially for children), tabas, La Calva (sport) or a variant of Lucha. Except for La Calva, all of them have practically ceased to be practiced.

Administration and politics

Municipal elections