Saint Morales

San Morales 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 Salamanca judicial district and to the Cantalapiedra and Las Villas Zone Commonwealth.

Its municipal area is made up of the towns of Aceña de la Fuente and San Morales, it occupies a total area of 4.92 km² and according to the demographic data collected in the municipal register prepared by the INE in 2017, it has a population of 332 inhabitants.

Place name

It originates from a popular interpretation of a primitive Salmorales 'fields with saline soil'. This was demonstrated, in a well-known article, by Manuel García Blanco. The salmoral type is repeated in Salamanca place names (thus, for example, in the town of Salmoral), which has been documentedly interpreted as as 'saline soil area': “Salmoral... comes from SAL MŬRIA 'brine, salty water' through the abundant *SALMURIALE”. The Zamoran form of the topn., Salmorial, very common in minor place names, is faithful to the Latin origin. Llorente adds: “if it were a Romance creation it would be *Salmueral, and not Salmoral”. It is possible, in fact, that the place names salmantinos salmoral, salmorales have their origin in the form salmorial, having lost the -i-, interpreted as epentetic and therefore with an archaic and Leonese aftertaste. Place names of the Salmorial type are very common in Zamora.

The high salt content, which has also produced numerous topns. of the Salinar type, Salineros, corresponds to discharge areas where the flow from the aquifer to the surface is produced by slow and prolonged ascending paths, causing strong mineralization. Salt accumulations and migrations are also recorded on the edges of the lagoons.

Geography

The municipal term is divided by the Tormes River, most of it being on the right bank of said river. Most of the municipal term is embraced by the municipal term of Aldearrubia, except on the southern border, which delimits with Calvarrasa de Abajo. Limited by two branches of the Tormes river is the farmhouse called Aceña de la Fuente. The land is mostly dedicated to irrigated agriculture, the main crop being corn, although there are also plantations of potatoes, beetroot, wheat, and to a lesser extent barley and sunflower. There are lands dedicated to forest use such as small poplars dotted throughout the term, and for livestock use, especially on the banks of the tormes, where ash trees, native poplars, willows and alders abound, being irrigated areas that have succumbed (for now) to the plow, destined to the production of pastures for beef cattle in an extensive regime. Most of the municipality is irrigated by the Babilafuente canal, although there are small sectors supplied by the Villoria canal (Northern zone) and by the Villagonzalo canal (left bank of the term).

History

Church of Saint Bartholomew.

Naughty street.

We still do not have data on the moment of creation of the town of San Morales, but everything seems to indicate that it was created during the repopulation carried out by the kings of León in the Middle Ages, being integrated into the quarter of Villoria of the jurisdiction of Salamanca, within the Kingdom of León, calling itself XIII Salmorales century. It was built on another previous settlement, although it cannot be ruled out. What is certain is that the area has been inhabited since ancient times, at least since Roman times, with at least three Roman sites in an advanced state of degradation due to agricultural work. It seems that these are inhabited areas villae or simple casae from the High Imperial period (5th and 6th centuries), although some of them (El Cenizal) may date from a previous time. These are settlements in the fertile plains of the Tormes River.

The Visigothic presence in the area is verified due to the discovery of numerous Visigothic slates in the area of Los Bebederos (Huerta). These are slates engraved with numbers and letters that seem to represent commercial transactions (purchase and sale of cereals or cattle), accounts, or even used as teaching material.

There is currently a fishery in Aceña de la Fuente, whose purpose was to divert the water towards the mill and take advantage of its power to grind grain. In the 16th and 17th centuries there were other mills such as the so-called Aceña de San Bricio, whose remains can be seen on the Tormes river on the eastern border with the Aldearrubia term. The Riada de San Policarpo, on February 23, 1626, caused significant damage to these hydraulic works.

There was a population center to the north of the current one, known as San Pedro, although it was already located in the municipality of Aldearrubia. There are numerous legends that all the inhabitants of San Pedro died as a result of a plague epidemic, except for two sister girls, who, going to ask Aldearrubia for help to bury the dead and give them food, were denied. They headed to San Morales, where their neighbors helped the girls. In it Cadastre of Ensenada, carried out in San Morales on October 25, 1752, it is said that the municipality is made up of San Morales and San Pedro, annexed to the former and already depopulated. The following description of the place is made:

"It is the entire term of dry land, and separating for greater clarity that of San Morales from that of San Pedro with the sites of each one, those of said term of San Morales are:

* The one they call San Martín, which adjoins said town.

* What is called Las Herias de Nuestra Señora del Río, is a quarter of a league away from the town.

* The one they call La Ofita, is a quarter of a league away from the town.

* The one they call Los Caños, which adjoins the town.

* What is called Las Cordoneras, is two arquebus shots away from the town.

In the expressed term of San Pedro, addition of said San Morales:

* What is called La Fenfeñal, is half a quarter of a long league away from the town.

* The one they call El Barroso, is half a league away from the town.

* What they call Cinco Villas is a quarter of a league away from the town"

There is only one church in the municipality, dedicated to San Bartolomé, patron saint of the town. The same saint is also patron saint of the nearby town of Huerta. Legend has it that in San Morales there were two images of San Bartolomé and in Huerta two boars. The people of San Morale needed a boar to cover their sows and make them give birth, and so they exchanged a San Bartolomé for a boar from the residents of Huerta, and since then the main boss of both towns has been the same. There was at least one hermitage in the term, that of San Martín, in the area that today is the picnic area, known as the San Martín lagoon.

The rivalry with the nearby town of Aldearrubia (one kilometer away) is secular. The XVII century dates the document known as "La Concordia", where the rights of the two towns and a friendly pact is reached to respect the meadows and lands of both towns.

A large part of the term belonged, until the confiscations of Madoz and Mendizábal in the middle of the XIX century, to the House of Alba and the convent of Santa Clara in the city of Salamanca. In fact, in the entire region of Las Villas, said noble house appointed corregidor of justice. The lordship was assigned to the House of Alba in the XVI century, after the War of the Communities, to reward the support of the noble family to the cause of King Carlos I of Spain, the Maldonado family being dispossessed of the manor, who had led the community movement in Salamanca, defending rights and privileges against a king who did not speak Spanish and had been educated in Germany.

Finally, with the creation of the current provinces in 1833, San Morales was included in the province of Salamanca, within the Leonese Region.

Demographics

Consistorial house.

Graphic of demographic evolution of San Morales between 1900 and 2022

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

Population centers

The municipality is divided into two population centers, which had the following population in 2017 according to the INE.

Culture

Parties

• San Bartolomé (24 August)

Administration and politics

Municipal elections