The Head of Béjar

La Cabeza de Béjar is a Spanish municipality and town in the province of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castilla y León. It is integrated into the Sierra de Béjar 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 13.91 km² and according to the demographic data collected in the municipal register prepared by the INE in 2017, it has a population of 72 inhabitants.

History

We have news of a woman (called Isabel García Martín) for whom King Alfonso VIII of Castile granted land to the city of Ávila in 1193, and designated it as the border, on the western side, the one still known today as the name of Arroyo de la Mula. Pray this way: "Then, from the top of the port of Xerit to the place where Corpedumne (the Body of Man river) is born; from here below, where the road passes that is in Corpedumne (Calzada de la Plata); then by the Calzada del "arroyo de la Mula"; from the Mula stream down to where it falls into the Tormes".

The Arroyo de la Mula is a small stream that crosses the small slope that, coming from Béjar, you go up to Guijuelo. It is born in the upper part of Tonda and bordering the lands of Guijuelo, La Cabeza and Guijo de Ávila, through this town it surrenders its waters to the Tormes. The Arroyo de la Mula will continue to be a point of reference to mark, looking north, the limits of the future Community of Villa y Tierra de Béjar and of the new Diocese of Plasencia.

We know that the Reconquest, as far as Ávila was concerned, that is, on behalf of Castilla, had reached here, up to the natural limits of Cabeza: passing the Arroyo de la Mula, one entered the lands of the Kingdom of León in which through Salvatierra you reached the city of Salamanca. Thus, La Cabeza, along with all the Land of Béjar, belonged to Castilla. From the castle, a defensive and surveillance post, and from the settlement that was forming around it, the name of the Calzada de Béjar, that is, the beginning or first beginning of the Council (or Community of town and land) comes out. of Béjar and later of the diocese of Plasencia. It's not just " Head", but " La Cabeza", a place where, facing the county of Salvatierra and the lands of Salamanca, a new demarcation began: that of the land of Béjar. It can also be said that in that place the Kingdom of León ended and that of Castile began.

As part of the Bejarana community, after the loss of the vote in Cortes de Béjar and its becoming dependent on Salamanca in that regard from 1425, a fact favored by the passage of Béjar and its territory into the hands of the Zúñiga in 1396, La Cabeza became part of the Kingdom of León, in which it has remained in the territorial divisions of Floridablanca in 1785 and finally in that of 1833 in which the current provinces are created, La Cabeza de Béjar being integrated into the province of Salamanca, within the Leonese Region, forming part of the judicial district of Béjar.

Demographics

Graphic of demographic evolution of The Bird Head between 1900 and 2022

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

According to the National Statistics Institute, as of December 31, 2018, La Cabeza de Béjar had a total population of 86 inhabitants, of whom 46 were men and 40 women. Regarding the year 2000, the census reflects 106 inhabitants, of which 58 were men and 48 women. Therefore, the loss of population in the municipality for the period 2000-2018 has been 20 inhabitants, a 19% decrease.

Administration and politics

Municipal elections

Transportation

The municipality is very well connected by road, through which runs both the N-630 national road that connects Gijón with Seville and the Ruta de la Plata highway, which follows the same route as the previous one and has an exit in the town, allowing some faster communications of the municipality with the rest of the country. Also noteworthy are the DSA-170 highway that arises from the junction with the national highway and allows communication with the neighboring municipality of Santibáñez de Béjar in a southeasterly direction and the DSA-250 highway, a continuation of the previous one after the crossing with the national highway in a southwesterly direction and that communicates with Fuentes de Béjar reaching Navalmoral de Béjar.

As far as public transport is concerned, after the closure of the Vía de la Plata railway route, which passed through the municipality of Guijuelo and had a station there, there are no train services in the municipality or in the neighbors, nor regular line with bus service, the closest station being Guijuelo. On the other hand, Salamanca airport is the closest, being about 59km away.

Heritage

Church of The Purest Conception

Catholic parish church dedicated to La Purísima Concepción, hermitage of San Roque, in the Archdiocese of Mérida-Badajoz, Diocese of Plasencia, Archpriesthood of Fuentes de Béjar.

Cerro El Castillo and La Atalaya.^{[citation required]}