The batheza

Interior of the Church of Santa Maria, located in the Plaza Mayor of the city

La Bañeza is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of León, in the autonomous community of Castilla y León. It is located in the traditional region of La Valduerna, in the transit between the Páramo and the Sierra del Teleno. It is also the head of the judicial party. It has a population of 10,024 inhabitants (INE 2022).

Being part of the Asturian territory, its surroundings formed part of the Conventus Asturum during Roman times. The city was born in the IX century by order of Count Gatón from the nuclei of San Pedro de Périx and Bani Eiza. Seat of a marquisate during the Modern Age, at the end of the XIX century it began its economic and urban transformation, which was affected by the arrival of the Plasencia-Astorga railway in 1896. A year earlier, in 1895, it received the title of City from Queen María Cristina.

Its monumental heritage, in which the churches of San Salvador and Santa María stand out, as well as various celebrations that take place throughout the year, among which carnivals, Holy Week and the patron saint festivities of the month of August, during which one of the few existing urban motorcycling races in Spain takes place, make it a city that receives tourism. The latter is added to its outstanding food industry, thanks to the presence of the sugar factory, and to the sector services, very present in the town due to its position as a regional center.

Physical geography

Location

Fragment of leaf 231 of the National Topographic Map of Spain of 2001 depicting La Bañeza

The city of La Bañeza is located in the traditional region of La Valduerna, at an altitude of 771 ms. no. m.. It is located in the south of the province, in a flat area close to the foothills of the León mountains, in this case the Sierra del Teleno. Its municipal area limits to the north with Soto de la Vega and Palacios de la Valduerna, to the south with Santa Elena de Jamuz and Cebrones del Río, to the east with Regueras de Arriba, and to the west with Palacios de la Valduerna. The territory of the municipal term is represented on sheet 231 of the National Topographic Map.

Northwest: Palacios de la Valduerna	North: Soto de la Vega	Northeast: Soto de la Vega
West: Palacios de la Valduerna		This: Upstairs
Southwest St. Helena of Jamuz	South: St. Helena of Jamuz	Sureste: Cebrones del Río

Map of the municipality

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Interactive map — La Bañeza and its municipality

Orography

The relief of the municipality is characterized by being very uneven, due in large part to its location in the fertile plain of the Órbigo river, and only in the western part of it appear small elevations of the terrain. The geodesic vertex of El Tejar is located in the municipal area, close to the urban area, at an altitude of 807 m s. no. m..

Hydrography

La Bañeza sees some of the most important river courses in the central part of León pass through its territory. To the east and in the limits of the municipality, runs the Órbigo river, a tributary of the Esla, and coming from the north, the Tuerto pours its waters into the Órbigo in the vicinity of the urban area. In the northern part, and bathing the lands of San Mamés de la Vega and Santiago de la Valduerna, runs the river Duerna which, coming from the Sierra del Teleno, flows into the river Tuerto in the northern part of the city, next to the sports facilities.

Climate

The climate in the municipality is, as in most of the Northern Plateau, a continental Mediterranean climate, slightly altered by the influence of the Cantabrian mountain range and the León mountains. Rainfall is distributed irregularly, with a maximum in spring and autumn and a minimum in summer. As for temperatures, winters are cold, with frequent frosts and sporadic snowfalls, while summers are short and hot. According to the Köppen climate classification, La Bañeza has a Csb climate (temperate with dry and temperate summer).

Average climatic parameters of La Bañeza in the period 1961-1998
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Average temperature (°C)	3.3	4.8	7.0	9.4	12.9	17.2	20.2	19.5	16.4	11.5	6.8	4.0	11.10
Total precipitation (mm)	54.1	40.3	28.5	40.8	49.6	36.0	18.8	11.7	26.2	47.3	48.7	45.3	447.1
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment. Precipitation data for the period 1962-1998 and temperature for the period 1961-1998 in La Bañeza October 4, 2012

History

Old Age

The first existing historical references for the Bañezano territory concern the location, in the nearby town of San Martín de Torres, of the Asturian-Roman city of Bedunia, mentioned by various sources such as the Antonino Itinerary. Conquered by Rome between the years 29 a. C. and 19 a. C., the space that La Bañeza currently occupies was part of the Conventus Asturum, first within the province of Tarragona and, since the end of the III< century, from Gallaecia.

Middle Ages

After the decline of the Roman world, the Visigoths and Suevi fought in the surroundings of the current city, in the uninhabited area of Hinojo, in the middle of the century V, being victory for the Goths. It is possible that at this time, between the centuries V and VIII there was a small settlement in the vicinity of the current church of San Salvador.

The current population of Bañez was born in the middle of the IX century by order of Count Gatón, from two nuclei: San Pedro de Périx (with people from Pereje) and Bani Eiza (with Mozarabs from Córdoba). From the merger of both arises the first market and two parishes, San Pedro (over the years transferred to Santa María) and San Salvador, a monastery offered to the bishop San Gennadio in the X, at the end of which it was destroyed by Almanzor's troops, being recovered at the beginning of the century XII.

Modern Age

In 1895 Queen Maria Cristina granted La Bañeza the title of City

In 1556 Pedro de Zúñiga y Bazán received the marquisate of La Bañeza, becoming the city at the head of it, in the hands of the Bazán family. During part of the XVII century it was the seat of the Advancement of the Kingdom.

Contemporary Age

Like the rest of the province, the city suffered the consequences of the Napoleonic occupation and the sufferings during the Carlist wars. At the end of the XIX century, the transformation of the economic base and the urban nucleus began, with a development that coincided with the concession in 1895 of the title of City from the hands of the regent queen María Cristina in the name of her son Alfonso XIII. The inauguration of the Plasencia-Astorga railway in 1896 was the most stimulating event for the growth of the city, which expanded towards the railway, occupying part of the existing agricultural space, with warehouses, factories or workshops. In the 1920s the city received a new impulse with the installation of the sugar factory, affecting not only the city but also the region, which would supply the raw material ever since.

In 1936 the city suffered the consequences of the Civil War, which claimed the life of the then mayor Isaac Nistal Blanco along with nine other people. On September 2, 2008, the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory exhumed his remains buried in Izagre.

In 1984 the Vía de la Plata railway was partially closed, compromising the economic future of the city for years, which did not begin to rebound until the opening of the Northwest highway in 1998.

Human Geography

Demographics

Plaza Mayor de La Bañeza

The municipality of La Bañeza had 10,443 inhabitants in 2015, according to the INE population census, of which 5,045 were men and 5,398 were women. Regarding their distribution, the majority live in La Bañeza, and some 300 spread between San Mamés de la Vega, Santiago de la Valduerna and scattered nuclei. The population has decreased slightly since 2011, after registering a progressive growth throughout 20th century, especially in the last twenty years, except for a brief hiatus in the late 1990s. It was due to the arrival of foreign immigrants and to the cessation in part of the emigration of Bañezans to other cities.

Population pyramid

The 2019 population pyramid data can be summarized as follows:

• The population under 20 is 17.68 % of the total.
• The figure between 20-40 years is 21.91 %.
• The figure between 40-60 years is 30.74 %.
• Over 60 years is 29.67 %.

Population developments

Graphic of demographic evolution of La Bañeza between 1842 and 2021

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 2021 of the INE.

The current growth of La Bañeza is also due in part to the strengthening of the city as a service center and the consolidation of a growing industrial sector favored by the city's position, which is located next to the Northwest highway and a few kilometers from the links between it and the AP-71, the A-52 and the A-66.

On the other hand, and as another of the causes of this growth, the immigrant group in 2008 in La Bañeza was estimated at 679 people, among which those from Europe stand out, with 295 people, and America, with 291 from the total. By country, the most numerous are those of Bulgarian nationality, integrating this group 169 people, Colombians with 153 registered and those from Morocco with 76; the rest of the immigrants are distributed among various nationalities from all continents.

Population distribution

The population entities that make up the municipality of La Bañeza are the following:

Population entities of La Bañeza

Population Entity	Coordinates	Pob. (2019)	Map
La Bañeza	42°17′59′′N 5°53′51′′′O / 42.29972, -5.89750	10 129	La Bañeza San Mamés de la Vega Santiago dela Valduerna Azucarera Castro de Sacaojos Villa Adela
San Mamés de la Vega	42°18′38′′N 5°55′01′′O / 42.31056, -5.91694	111
Santiago de la Valduerna	42°18′24′N 5°55′24′′ / 42.30667, -5.92333	98
Total		10 338
Source: INE, 2019

Transportation and communications

Road

Place of passage of the old Vía de la Plata, La Bañeza is connected with the rest of the community and the country through several roads of different categories, being an important regional communications hub:

Identifier	Denomination	Itinerary
	Northwest motorway	It runs between Madrid and La Coruña.
N-VI	La Coruña Road	It runs between Madrid and La Coruña.
CL-622	Autonomic road	Communicate La Bañeza with León. According to the new Regional Road Plan of the Junta de Castilla y León, it is expected that it will become a motorway, as part of the León-Braganza.
LE-125	Provincial road	Communicate with the Zamorana region of Sanabria.
LE-420	Provincial road	Communicate with Hospital de Órbigo.

Finally, it has several roads of a local nature that connect La Bañeza with other nearby towns such as Jiménez de Jamuz or Destriana.

Railroad

Railroad Ruta de la Plata at the turn of La Bañeza station, closed since 1985

La Bañeza station was in operation until 1985, belonging to the Plasencia-Astorga line, inaugurated in 1896. For a few years now, numerous organizations and companies have been calling for its reopening to structure the west of the peninsula effectively and recover the alternative of transporting passengers and freight by rail.

Air transportation

The León airport, which came into service in 1999, is located in the municipalities of Valverde de la Virgen and San Andrés del Rabanedo, 49 kilometers from La Bañeza.

Economy

White beans of the kidney of La Bañeza

In 2007, the sector that generated the most employment in La Bañeza was services, with 2,223 people, representing 61.1% of the total. Next came industry and construction, with 845 and 483 workers respectively, being 23.2 and 13.3%. Finally, the agricultural sector generated only 88 jobs, 2.4% of the total.

Regarding companies, 73.6% corresponded to the service sector, 14.6% to construction, 10.2% to industry, and 1.6% to the primary sector.

Primary sector

Municipal land is distributed as follows: herbaceous (50.45%), pasture (8.32%), forestry (5.61%), woody (3.02%) and other uses (32, 60%).

Secondary sector

Industrial activity in Báñez is focused on the food sector, whose highest representative is the sugar factory that Associated British Foods maintains in the city (until March 2009 it belonged to Ebro Foods). sugar beet obtained mostly from the Leonese regions of Páramo, Ribera del Órbigo and Maragatería, and from the Zamora region of Benavente and Los Valles. Other noteworthy companies, due to their volume of production and number of employees, are Sausages Rodríguez, Pavimentos Páramo and Aluminios San Antonio.

The city has two industrial areas: the first one, La Sementera, is located next to the N-VI highway and is the smaller of the two, with 12,000 square meters. The other newly built industrial estate is Villa Adela, which, with an area of 300,000 square metres, expects an extension of 560,900 square metres.

Tertiary sector

In La Bañeza, traditional commerce predominates, along with some national-level firms.

Administration and politics

Municipal administration

The political administration of the municipality is carried out through a democratically managed council, whose members are elected every four years by universal suffrage. The electoral census is made up of all residents registered in La Bañeza, over 18 years of age and with nationality of any of the member countries of the European Union. According to the provisions of the General Electoral Regime Law, which establishes the number of eligible councilors based on the population of the municipality, the Municipal Corporation is made up of 17 councilors.

Results of the municipal elections of La Bañeza between 1979 and 1999

Political party	1979		1983		1987		1991		1995		1999
	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors	% votes	councillors
Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE)	-	-	21.99	3	22,06	3	30,23	5	15,56	3	20,31	4
Popular Party (PP) (Popular Alliance up to 1989)	-	-	15,18	2	55.85	9	48,34	7	40,72	8	42,62	8
United Left (IU)	-	-	-	-	5,26	0	-	-	3,39	0	3,05	0
Union de Centro Democrático (UCD)	49,79	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Communist Party of Spain (PCE)	20,86	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	-	-	2.46	0	10,37	1	9.89	1	-	-	3.13	0
Electors Group	29,35	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Independent	-	-	52,86	8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Leon Country Regionalist Party (PREPAL)	-	-	1.74	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Union of the Leon People (UPL)	-	-	-	-	-	-	4.69	0	34.15	6	29.4	5
Popular Democratic Party (PDP)	-	-	-	-	1.84	0	-	-	-	-	-	-
Liberal Party (PL)	-	-	-	-	1,82	0	-	-	-	-	-	-
Other	-	-	5,78	0	0.85	0	5,83	0	3.68	0	-	-

List of mayors from
1979 municipal elections

Period	Name of the mayor	Political party
1979 - 1981	Guillermo García Arconada	UCD
1981 - 1995	Antonio Fernández Calvo	AP
1995 - 1999	Santiago Sevilla Miguélez	UPL
1999 - 2000	Antonio Fernández Calvo	P
2000 - 2001	José Miguel Palazuelo Martín	PSOE
2002 - 2002	Emilio de la Mata	P
2002 - 2003	José Manuel Rodríguez	P
2003 - 2019	José Miguel Palazuelo Martín	PSOE
2019 -	Javier Carrera de Blas	P

The municipal term, in addition to the capital, includes the nuclei of San Mamés de la Vega and Santiago de la Valduerna, very close to the urban area of La Bañeza. In February 2009, La Bañeza was the first municipality in Castilla y León to celebrate a civil baptism.

Municipal areas

The municipal executive management is organized into management areas headed by a councilor from the government team. Each area of government has several delegations based on the powers assigned to it and which vary from one municipal government to another. The current areas of management of the City Council are the following:

Judicial administration

La Bañeza is the head of judicial district number 3 of the province of León, whose demarcation includes the city plus other towns in the bordering regions. It houses two Trial Chambers.

Facilities and services

View of the Consistorial House

Education

The city of La Bañeza has several non-university education centers. Of a public nature, it has a municipal nursery, two infant and primary education centers (CEIP San José de Calasanz and CEIP Teleno) and two secondary education centers (IES Vía de la Plata and IES Ornia). Of a private nature, the city has two centers, Nuestra Señora del Carmen (subsidized) and Tierras de La Bañeza, the latter for Vocational Training and not subsidized.

In secondary education institutes ESO, Baccalaureate and some cycles of Vocational Training are taught. In the Vía de la Plata the training cycles offered are Administration and Finance, and Electrotechnical Installations, at a higher level, and Administrative Management, Electrotechnical Equipment and Installations, and Electromechanical Installation and Maintenance of Machinery and Line Driving, at a medium level.

As for special education, La Bañeza has a Municipal Music School (Odón Alonso Ordás) and an Adult Education Classroom (EPA).

Health

La Bañeza does not have its own hospital, so they have to go to the centers located in León. It has a health center that integrates the basic health areas Bañeza I and Bañeza II. The first includes the municipalities of Santa Elena de Jamuz and Soto de la Vega, as well as the capital, and Bañeza II includes Santa María de la Isla, San Esteban de Nogales, San Cristóbal de la Polantera, Roperuelos del Páramo, Valdefuentes del Páramo, Riego de la Vega, Quintana and Congosto, Quintana del Marco, Palacios de la Valduerna, La Antigua, Alija del Infantado, Castrocontrigo, Castrocalbón, Pozuelo del Páramo, Destriana, Castrillo de la Valduerna, Villazala, Villamontán de la Valduerna and Cebrones del Río. For a few years, different groups have been calling for the construction of a regional hospital for the areas of Astorga and La Bañeza.

Social services

Social services in La Bañeza are managed by the Department of Social Welfare. This has a series of municipal programs such as the disabled, drug addiction, family, childhood-leisure, youth, women, social participation and the elderly. Among the means offered is CEAS, which has four social workers and a community animator, apart from the social worker that the La Bañeza Health Center has.

Other resources that we find in the municipality are seven private residences for the elderly and the Nuestra Señora del Valle school, for the disabled and managed by the León council.

Culture

Heritage

Church of San Salvador

Church of San Salvador

The center of the Mozarabic enclave that later gave rise to the city, its origins date back to the IX century. Destroyed by Almanzor, it was rebuilt in the 11th century. It has three naves, conserving the Romanesque apse. It was reformed in modern times, the Plateresque façade and the tower being from this moment. Inside, the Baroque altarpiece by Francisco de Rivera, the canvases by Felipe Gil de Mena and a carving of San Salvador, the work of 1659 by Lucas Gutiérrez, stand out.

Church of Santa Maria

Church of Santa Maria. The chapitel that crowned his tower was destroyed by a fire in 1894

In a starry Gothic style, its construction took place in the XVI century, being heir to the old church of San Pedro of Perix. It presents a basilica plan with three naves, undergoing some modifications in the XVII century. Inside, there is an image of La Piedad, the work of Gregorio Fernández, the altarpiece of the main altar, the work of Francisco de Rivera from the XVII and the carvings of Saint Teresa (Diego de Gamboa, 1634), Saint Paul, Saint John of the Cross (Diego de la Peña) and the Assumption (Lucas Gutiérrez, 1662).

Construction of the tower began in 1750, suffering multiple delays year after year. The first body was the work of Antonio Martín de Suinaga and the second by Simón Gabilán Tomé. In 1894, the spire that crowned it was destroyed by fire.

House consistorial

Located in the Plaza Mayor, it is a neoclassical building built between 1900 and 1909, the work of the architect Lázaro Cárdenas. A few years later, a hexagonal tower was added, with a slate roof, and a carillon in which the Hymn of Joy sounds every hour.

Other constructions

The old hospital is perhaps the oldest civil building in the city, with the first references in 1539 and rebuilt in 1897. Next to it is the chapel of the Vera Cruz, which houses different processional carvings. In various streets of the city you can find several modernist buildings. They have one or two brick or stone floors, iron decoration on balconies and gazebos, and ornamentation with pilasters, garlands, and other motifs.

The chapel of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias y Soledad keeps different processional steps of Bañez's Holy Week, as well as the chapel of Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, which houses the Museum of Imagination. On the other hand, the façade of the municipal cemetery stands out, in neo-Mudéjar style, the work of Juan Bautista Lázaro de Diego from 1887.

Museums

La Bañeza has the Museo Imaginero, located in the chapel of Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno and which houses various processional steps such as a Nazarene (Luis Salvador Carmona, XVIII), Our Lady of Bitterness (Navarro Santafé, 1944), a Crucified (Faustino Sanz Herranz, 1986) or a Jesus Arrested (Antonio Palau, 1941), the House-Museum of Ángel Riesco, which is located in the Ciudad Misioneras compound, on the Madrid highway, and in which his work office, the oratory, the bedroom and photographs and personal documents are shown, the Museum of Jewelry on the Vía de la Plata, inaugurated in the spring of 2011, the Bean Museum, which is the headquarters of the regulatory council of the protected geographical indication of the La Bañeza - León bean, and the Interpretation Center of the Bañezana Lands, located in a old flour factory that retains all its original machinery. The latter presents two different themes: on the one hand, it offers a tour of the flour manufacturing process, and on the other, it invites you to take a journey through the history of La Bañeza and its region.

Cultural spaces

Teatro Pérez Alonso

The first theater space that La Bañeza had was the Municipal Theater, built in 1845, lasting until 1922, the year in which it was demolished. The following year, in 1923, the Seoanez Theater was inaugurated, a private initiative, and converted into the California cinema in 1948. The Pérez Alonso theater, built according to the designs of Javier Sanz and also a private initiative, was inaugurated on April 28 of 1930 with the zarzuela El Huésped del Sevillano, being at the time one of the most important in the province. In 1997 it was bought by the city council, undertaking a first phase of rehabilitation, and in 2007 the reform at the hands of the Ministry of Housing, being reopened in March 2011.

Other

The Juan de Ferreras public library, whose origins date back to 1942 and which has several consultation rooms, a newspaper library, a children's area, audiovisuals and Internet access, and the Cultural Center of the Bañezanas Lands are other spaces with which What does the city say?

Holy Week

During the ten days that elapse from Friday of Sorrows to Easter Sunday, a total of 14 processions, organized by the three existing brotherhoods (in addition to the Penitential Brotherhood of Las Águedas), go through the streets of the city. These three are the Brotherhood of the True Cross, founded in the XVI century, the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Sorrows and Solitude, founded in 1615 but being older since the first mentions appear in the years 1550-1570, and the Brotherhood of Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, founded in 1667.

Image of the Virgin of the Amargura

Among its most significant events stands out the procession of the Holy Potajero on Holy Wednesday, declared of Provincial Tourist Interest and organized by the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Sorrows and Solitude. According to the statutes of the Brotherhood, it had to give the poor three meals throughout the year, going to the church where they were cleaned and given food. Over time, the food became so popular that currently all the social classes of the city come to it with their casserole to eat the chickpea stew with rice and cod.

Festivities and events

Carnival ears. Typical Bañeza sweet on those dates

Throughout the year there are numerous cultural and festive events that take place in La Bañeza. Chronologically, in the month of February the carnivals are celebrated, a festival declared of National Tourist Interest in 2011. After the celebration of Holy Week, in mid-April the Book Fair takes place, during which contests are held of stories and poetry.

In mid-August, the patron saint festivities are celebrated in honor of Our Lady of the Assumption and San Roque, during which the Motor and Crafts fairs and one of the few urban motorcycling races in Spain take place. Finally, in the month of September, the Agro-Food Fair is held on the last day of which the Alubiada takes place, in which more than 5000 portions of La Bañeza beans are distributed. In addition, every Saturday the traditional weekly market is installed in the streets of the city.

The imagination, sympathy, irony and good humor take over the Bañezans with their Carnival Feeling

Carnival

The Bañezano carnival is one of the festivities that is most deeply rooted by all the inhabitants of the city and region, being a must for Bañezanos and tourists from the province.

In 1675 Antonio Ferreras already mentioned the carnival referring to a will of a resident of the city. In more modern times, the party, although prohibited during the Francisco Franco dictatorship, continued to be celebrated in the city under explicit permission from the current authority, although with certain restrictions on the way it was carried out. Given this, many carnival-goers broke the norm, being persecuted by the security forces; this is where the Bañezan expression of running the Carnival comes from.

The current carnival begins with the preliminary act of the Proclamation of the Muse, although unofficially it begins with Quiet Friday, followed by Saturday of Sparks, Sunday of Carnival, Monday (children's parade and Noche witch), Tuesday of Carnival and Wednesday of Ash with its Burial of the Sardine. The festival currently lasts until the following Saturday with Piranha Saturday.

The carnival of La Bañeza is characterized by not being motivated by a costume contest obtaining prizes or money, but rather each participant goes out dressed up driven by the desire to have a good time, improve their costume and interpretation and contribute to the beautification of the party generally.

The recognition and passion of the people of Bañez for this celebration is evident in the square that bears his name (Plaza del Carnaval) and in the recognition of others, being awarded in 1990 with the Blazon of Tourism, declared in 2002 Festival of Interest Regional Tourism. and in 2011 of National Tourist Interest.

Gastronomy

Frog nuts are one of the typical dishes of the locality

Among the varied gastronomy of Bañez, the beans stand out, which in 2006 obtained the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) of La Bañeza-León, and frog legs. In the field of confectionery, the San Lázaro buns, the Imperials, the Yolks or the San Blas pasta are noteworthy.

Media

Press

In La Bañeza you can find the main general information newspapers in León, as well as the main national general information newspapers as well as national economic and sports newspapers. Regarding the local press, the city has the weekly El Adelanto Bañezano, founded in 1932, La Bañeza Hoy, founded in 1999 and Ibañeza.es, the digital newspaper of La Bañeza and region, which offer local and regional news.

Radio

As for radio, the city has several stations. For general information there is a presence of some of the national channels such as Onda Cero, Punto Radio, Radio María and Europa FM.

Television

In addition to the different national channels, there are others of an autonomous nature such as Canal 4 Castilla y León and Televisión Castilla y León, but since the union of both corporations, forming the company Radio Televisión de Castilla y León, they have been replaced by the channels La 7 and La 8, being able to see through DTT.

Sports

Sports entities

In addition to the sports that are practiced in municipal facilities and school teams, a series of entities stand out in the city. In soccer, it has the La Bañeza Fútbol Club, which plays in the eighth group of the third division from Spain, the soccer school Club Deportivo La Bañeza, and La Bañeza Fútbol Sala, which plays in the Tercera División de Futsal, being the club in the city that has achieved the most success, even playing in the Division of Honor.

In basketball it has Club Atlético Bañezano de Baloncesto, which plays in the regional league, and Club Baloncesto La Bañeza. Other disciplines are represented in clubs such as the Bañezano Canoeing Club, La Bañeza Table Tennis Sports Club, Bañezano Cycling Club, La Bañeza Chess Club, La Bañeza Athletics Club, Teleno Mountain Club, Rhythmic Gymnastics Club, La Bañeza Shooting Club, El Piñón Cortés Cycling Sports Club, La Badana BTT Sports Club, La Bañeza Fishing Club and Bañezano Motorcycle Club.

Sports facilities

Moment of the Great Speed Prize

La Bañeza has several spaces for practicing sports: the La Llanera soccer field, the swimming pools (indoor and outdoor) and the municipal sports center, which offers a covered pavilion, a fronton court, a gym, and basketball and indoor soccer courts, tennis, paddle tennis and beach volleyball.

Sports events

Among the sporting events that take place in La Bañeza throughout the year are the Santiago Fuertes Memorial for cycling, the Vía de la Plata Half Marathon, which is held in October, the City Basketball Tournament de La Bañeza, and especially the Ciudad de La Bañeza Speed Grand Prix, which takes place in mid-August, during the celebration of the patron saint festivities, and which in 2009 celebrated its 50th edition. It is one of the few urban motorcycling circuits that exist in the world (only the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy resembles it), with classic motorcycle races (2-stroke and 4-stroke), 125cc and Moto3 motorcycles and which in 2015 broke the record for viewers, more than 60,000.

Twinned cities

The city of La Bañeza participates in the town twinning initiative promoted, among other institutions, by the European Union. From this initiative, ties have been established with the following locations:

Twin cities
Country	City	Date Brotherhood	Shield	Website of the city	Image
Portugal	Braganza			Braganza (in Portuguese)
France	Gennevilliers	2005		Ville de Gennevilliers (in French)
United States	Tooele			Tooele City (in English)

Bañezanos illustrious