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Castile and León (Spanish: Castilla y León), known formally as the Community of Castile and León, is one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain. It was constructed from Old Castile (Spanish: Castilla la Vieja) and León, first as a preautonomía—a "pre-autonomous" region—in 1978 and then as an autonomous community in 1983. It is the largest autonomous community in Spain, covering an area of 94,223 square kilometres (36,380 sq mi) with an official population of around 2.5 million (2005). The supreme law of Castile and León, under the Spanish Constitution of 1978, is the region's Statute of Autonomy. The statute lays out the basic laws of the region and defines a series of essential values and symbols of the inhabitants of Castile and León, such as their linguistic patrimony (the Castilian language, which English-speakers common refer to simply as "Spanish", as well as Leonese and Galician), as well as their historic, artistic, and natural patrimony. Other symbols alluded to are the coat of arms, flag, and banner; there is also allusion to a regional anthem, though as of 2009 none has been adopted. April 23 is designated Castile and León Day, commemorating the defeat of the comuneros at the Battle of Villalar during the Revolt of the Comuneros, in 1521.
[edit] Geography Castile and León borders on Asturias and Cantabria to the north; Aragon, the Basque Country, and La Rioja to the east; the autonomous community of Madrid and Castile-La Mancha to the southeast; Extremadura to the south; and Portugal and Galicia to the west. Castile and León is roughly coterminous with the Spanish part of the Douro River basin, on the northern half of the Meseta Central, a vast plateau in the middle of the Iberian Peninsula. It also extends to some adjoining valleys, such as El Bierzo (León) and many secluded mountain valleys including Laciana (León), Valle de Mena (Burgos, and Valle del Tiétar (Ávila. [edit] TerrainMost of the terrain of Castile and León consists of a large portion of Spain's Meseta Central, surrounded by mountainous regions. The Meseta is a dry, arid high plain, with an average altitude of about 800 metres (2,600 ft), covered by deposits of clay soil. In the north are the mountains of the provinces of Palencia and León, with high, spindly peaks and the mountains of the province of Burgos, divided in two by the Pancorbo Pass, leading from Castile to the Basque Country. Of those two parts, the more northerly belongs to the Cantabrian Range and continues to the city of Burgos; the mountains of the east and southeast are part of the Sistema Ibérico. In the northeast are the mountains of Zamora, whose peaks have been eroded into mesas. In the east, the mountains of Soria are also part of the Sistema Ibérico, including its highest peak, El Moncayo. Separating the northern Meseta from the southern and from Castile-La Mancha and Madrid, the Sistema Central includes the Sierra de Gata and the Sierra de Gredos in the western half and the Sierra de Guadarrama and Sierra de Ayllón in the eastern half. [edit] Geological evolutionThe northern Meseta is constituted of Paleozoic plinths. After the Variscan orogeny raised Central Europe and the Galician area of Spain at the beginning of the Mesozoic, deposits were eroded away by rivers. During the Alpine orogeny, the materials that formed the plateau were broken at multiple points. This fracturing raised the relatively low mountains of León, constituting a dorsal spine of the Meseta, the Cantabrian Range and the Sistema Central, formed of materials such as granite or metamorphic slates. One result of this geology was to create medicinal mineral water springs and/or hot springs in Almeida de Sayago, Boñar, Calabor, Caldas de Luna, Castromonte, Cucho, Gejuelo del Barro, Morales de Campos, Valdelateja, and Villarijo. [edit] Rivers The most prominent hydrographic feature of Castile and León is the River Douro (Spanish: Duero) and its tributaries. The Douro runs 897 kilometres (557 mi) from its headwaters in the Picos de Urbión in Soria to its mouth at the Portuguese city of Oporto. Flowing into the Douro from the north, on its right bank, are the Pisuerga, the Valderaduey and the Esla, its most capacious tributaries, and from the east, on its left bank, the lesser flows of the Adaja and Duratón. After passing the city of Zamora, the Douro flows through a canyon in the Arribes del Duero Natural Park where it constitutes the border with Portugal, flowing north. From its left bank, it receives the waters of such important tributaries as the Tormes, Huebra, Águeda, the Côa and the Paiva, all originating in the Sistema Central. From the right bank, it receives the waters of the Sabor, the Tua and the Támega, originating in the Galician Massif. Beyond the Arribes, the Douro turns west, flowing through Portugal to the Atlantic. Nonetheless, the Douro and its tributaries are not the region's only important rivers; the Jalón in Palencia, Burgos, and Soria flows via the Ebro to the Mediterranean Sea. The River Minho (Miño) flows from León into Portugal, the Alagón in Salamanca flows to the Tagus and several provinces containing portions of the Cantabrian Mountains have waters flowing north into the Cantabrian Sea.  Rivers played an important part in the development of the region. Each of the provincial capitals of Castile and León is on the banks of a river.
[edit] Lakes and reservoirs Besides these rivers, the Douro basin also has a great number of lakes and lagoons, such as the Laguna Negra, in the Picos de Urbión, the Laguna Grande in Gredos, the Sanabria Lake in Zamora or the Laguna de la Nava in Palencia. There are also a great number of reservoirs, fed by the snows and rains in the mountains and by glacial meltwater. Despite having relatively little rainfall, Castile and León has one of Spain's largest quantities of water held in reserve. [edit] ClimateCastile and León has a continentalized Mediterranean climate: a Mediterranean climate with a marked character of a continental climate. The continentalized Mediterranean climate is similar to a typical Mediterranean climate, but with more extreme temperatures typical of a continental climate. Winters are long and cold, with average temperatures between 4 °C (39 °F) and 7 °C (45 °F) in January. Summers are short and hot (averages between 19 °C (66 °F) and 22 °C (72 °F)), with the three or four dry summer months typical of a Mediterranean climate. Rain averages only 450 millimetres (18 in) to 500 millimetres (20 in) annually, mostly in the lower altitudes. [edit] Climatic factorsThe mountains surrounding Castile and León block the winds from the seas, reducing precipitation in the region. Consequently, the rains fall very unequally through the Castilian-Leonese region. While the center of the Douro basin receives an annual rainfall of 450 millimetres (18 in), in the western comarcas (roughly shires) of the mountains of León and the Cantabrian Range precipitation can be as much as 1,500 millimetres (59 in) per year. The high altitude of the Castilian-Leonese Meseta and mountain ranges contributes not only to the contrast of summer and winter temperatures, but also to a marked contrast of day and night temperatures. [edit] Climatic regionsAlthough the climate throughout Castile and León is predominantly a continentalized Mediterranean climate throughout, there are distinctive climatic regions. In the north, Castile and León includes the southern face of the Cantabrian Range; the northern slope, facing the Atlantic, falls within other provinces. The highest portion of the Cantabrian Range in Castile and León experiences the oceanic climate from the Atlantic, with milder winters (at least relative to the altitude) and more temperate summers. The lower slopes of the same range share these temperate summers, but have the colder winters more typical of the Meseta. Nearly all of the central portion of the Meseta has the continentalized Mediterranean climate discussed above, although the eastern part of Zamora has a much drier climate. The mountainous regions of the northeast, east, and south have a typical Mediterranean mountain climate, with little rain, hot summers, and cold winters. [edit] Transportation[edit] AirportsThe last years have seen a big improvement in accessibility from the rest of Europe, mainly through the operations of low-cost airlines at the airport of Villanubla (Valladolid). There are three other airports in Castile and León: León, Salamanca, and Burgos. The main airport of the neighbouring region of Madrid (Barajas) is close as well, if not yet with a direct communication through public transportation. [edit] Road communicationsThe region is the land communication hub of northern Spain. It is crossed by the International E-roads E80 and E05. These are the main roads connections between Portugal and the south of Spain with the rest of Europe. Castile and León is also crossed by two major ancient routes:
[edit] Regional administration and government Castile and León is divided into nine provinces: Each of these provinces is named after its respective provincial capital.  Although the "Statute of Autonomy" for Castile and León does not specify any city to be the capital of the autonomous community, the city of Valladolid serves that purpose in certain contexts. Initially, the Courts (Cortes, the legislature) met provisionally in Burgos; Tordesillas was discussed as a possible capital, and at one point, the Courts met, also on a provisional basis, at the Castle of Fuensaldaña. Finally, a law adopted in 1987 established the Junta of Castile and León—the Regional Executive government of the Community—and the Courts—the legislature—in Valladolid. Thus, Valladolid is now effectively the capital. However, other institutions of government and administration are distributed through the region. The Economic and Social Council is in Valladolid, but the Superior Tribunal of Justice—the highest regional judiciary body—is in Burgos, the Consultative Council (Consejo Consultivo) is in Zamora, the Board of Auditors (Consejo de Cuentas) in Palencia, and the Ombudsman (Procurador del Común, literally "Common Attorney") in León. [edit] Autonomous ExecutiveThe executive of Castile and León is known as the Junta de Castilla y León in Spanish. It has one head of the Regional Executive (Spanish: Presidente de la Junta) and twelve departments: Two Vicepresidencias and ten ministries (Spanish: Consejerías).
[edit] Regional Legislature The Regional Courts of Castile and León (Spanish: Cortes de Castilla y León) is the elected legislature of the Autonomous Community. The tradition of the Regional Courts is traced back to the Royal Council (Latin: Curia Regis) of León (1188). The Curia Regis was a king's summons of the estates of the realm. Although the practical outcome of the Curia Regis of 1188 is still disputed, its charter seems to be an early movement towards the rule of constitutional law, much like the Magna Carta. The Regional Courts meet in Valladolid. Three parties have parliamentary representation in Castile and León:
Two other parties, the left-wing United Left (Izquierda Unida, IU) and the left-of-center Castilian Nationalist Tierra Comunera - ACAL, contest elections and have held seats in the Regional Courts in the past, but as of 2009 neither is represented in that body.
[edit] Regional judiciary[edit] OmbudsmanThe Ombudsman of Castile and León (Spanish: Procurador del Común) is appointed by the Regional Courts.
[edit] Consultative CommitteeThe Consultative Committee of Castile and León (Spanish: Consejo Consultivo) is a group of five legal analysts. They are appointed by the Regional Courts and the Junta. The Committee delivers reports on legal issues both to the Regional Government and to incumbent municipal governments.
[edit] Flag and coat of armsThe flag of Castile and León and coat of arms of Castile and León each show the quartered coats of arms of Castile, represented by a castle, and León, represented by a lion. The seal is topped with a royal crown. [edit] Castile and León DayThe regional holiday Castile and León Day commemorates the events of April 23, 1521, when the Revolt of the Comuneros was defeated. While the politics and meaning of the revolt remains a matter of contention, it has been embraced by liberals and, later, the left as a symbol of opposition to absolutism and privilege since at least 1821 during the trienio liberal—the three years of liberal ascendancy—when Juan Martín Díez, "El Empecinado" ("The Undaunted"), made a speech at Villalar (now Villalar de los Comuneros) honoring the Comuneros. This tradition was embraced strongly during the Second Spanish Republic and again in the post-Franco transition to democracy, when tens of thousands began to gather at Villalar on the anniversary. [edit] LanguagesBesides the dominant Castilian Spanish, three other regional languages figure in the linguistic patrimony of Castile and León. Two of these are recognized explicitly in the Statute of Autonomy. The Leonese language, according to the Statute, "will be the object of specific protection […] for its particular value in the linguistic patrimony of the Community"[2]. The Galician language, according to the statute, "merits respect and protection in the places where it is habitually used,[3] which is effectively to say the portions of the comarcas of El Bierzo and Sanabria bordering Galicia. In addition, although unmentioned in the Statute, in the comarca of El Rebollar in the province of Salamanca, people speak a variety of Extremaduran[4] known as Habla del Rebollar ("the speech of Rebollar"). [edit] Education [edit] Universities
[edit] History[edit] Historic union of the Kingdoms of Castile and León Castile and León traces back to the historic kingdoms (or Crowns) of León and Castile. Together with other Christian Iberian kingdoms, the separate monarchies of Castile and León participated in the Reconquista, the reconquest of Iberia from the so-called Moors, its medieval Muslim rulers. Other kingdoms participating in the Reconquista were, first, Galicia, and later other kingdoms carved out of lands won back to Christendom over the centuries: the Kingdoms of Toledo, Badajoz, Seville and others. The first dynastic union of León and Castile came about in 1037, when Ferdinand, the 20-year-old Count of Castile, defeated his brother-in-law Bermudo III of León in battle and claimed the Crown of León through the rights of his own wife, Sancha, Bermudo's sister. Although he declared himself Emperor of All Spain in 1056, the union ended with Ferdinand's death in 1065, when Castile, León, and Galicia each passed to a different one of Ferdinand's sons and certain cities to his daughters, with a further division of spheres of influence in the Muslim taifas. The arrangement did not hold. The sons soon fought; eventually one son, Alfonso VI of León again created an effective union and in 1077 again claimed the title of Emperor of All Spain. However, his death in 1109 left the kingdoms again disunited.  Alfonso VII managed another personal dynastic union from 1126 until his death in 1157. Finally, Ferdinand III of Castile, later canonized, achieved the definitive union of the two Crowns. After Ferdinand's father Alfonso IX of León died in 1230, Ferdinand, already ruler of Castile, conquered León from his own half-sisters Sancha and Dulce, much against the desires of the Leonese clergy and nobility. His son and successor Alfonso X, unusually highly educated for a monarch of that era, established Castilian as a language of learning and culture, beginning the process by which the Castilian language would become the dominant language of much of Spain, with other languages—including Leonese—increasingly seen as local dialects. [edit] Parliamentary traditionsAlthough the theory and spirit of absolutism remained strong in Spain into living memory, the medieval Cortes of León is one of the earliest ancestors of Europe's parliaments. The remote origins of the Cortes dates back to the early 12th century. The Cortes of León of 1188 called by Alfonso IX is one of the earliest documented gatherings of the estates in which commoners of the cities and towns are represented beside the clergy and nobility as counselors to the monarch. Alfonso gathered similar assemblies in 1202 in Benavente and 1208 in León. In the kingdom of Castile, the first curia—a large assembly to address the affairs of the kingdom—appears to have been convoked by Alfonso VIII in 1187 at San Esteban de Gormaz, with the leading men of fifty cities in attendance. In his capacity as king of Castile, Ferdinand III received the homage of large delegations at Valladolid in 1217 and convoked a curia in 1219 at Burgos. The comparatively early date of these assemblies results directly from the relative autonomy granted to towns and cities in the north Iberian regions as the Reconquista moved forward and these places were repopulated. Another factor was the application of Roman law, which contributed a theory for the convening of municipalities and for their participation in governance. These 12th and 13th century assemblies continued through the following centuries, forming the most remote ancestry of today's Cortes of Castile and León and constituting part of the European tradition of parliamentarianism. As is clearly evident, these medieval Cortes had little resemblance to present-day parliamentary assemblies. They were not democratic in any modern sense of the term, because there was no direct representation of the populace. There was little in them of the slow rise of constitutionalism in the Parliament of England, the vast, independent power gained by the nobles of the Polish sejm, nor, even more clearly, the broad suffrage first seen on a large scale at the time of the French Revolution. [edit] Depopulation in recent decades After the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the rural areas of present-day Castile and León lost population due to emigration to Spain's large cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, etc.) and abroad (to Germany, France, Switzerland, among others). The growth of a strong industrial center in Valladolid, including Spain's first automobile factory—the Renault plant led by the soldier and engineer Manuel Jiménez Alfaro—mitigated, but did not stop, the emigration. [edit] Antecedents to the autonomous community Spain has alternated between regionalism and centralization several times in the last century and a half. In 1869, the republicans of the present Castile and León plus the provinces of Santander (now Cantabria) and Logroño (now La Rioja) had drafted the Castilian Federal Pact (Pacto Federal Castellano), which projected the creation of a federated state under the name Castilla la Vieja (Old Castile) in these eleven provinces. During the First Republic (1873–1874), the Republican Democratic Federal Party (Partido Republicano Democrático Federal) intended to make this a reality.[5] However, the fall of the Republic at the beginning of 1874 put an end to this initiative.[6] In 1921, on the fourth centenary of the Battle of Villalar, the municipal government of Santander, Cantabria advocated for the establishment of a Castilian commonwealth of these same eleven provinces. In late 1931 and early 1932, the priest Eugenio Merino, in León, wrote a piece for the Diario de León stating a basis for Castilian-Leonese regionalism.[7] During the Second Republic, especially in 1936, there was a great deal of regionalist activity favorable to a region of eleven provinces, including the elaboration of the basis of a statute of autonomy. The Diario de León advocated for the formalization of this initiative and the constitution of an autonomous region as follows: "to unite in one personality León and Old Castile around the great basin of the Douro, without falling now into simple village rivalries."[8] The establishment of a centralising regime after the Spanish Civil War brought an end to these aspirations for regional autonomy. After the death of the dictator Francisco Franco unleashed the Spanish transition to democracy, there was an upwelling of Castilian-Leonese regionalist, autonomist and nationalist organizations, such as Alianza Regional de Castilla y León (1975), Instituto Regional de Castilla y León (1976) and the Autonomic Nationalist Party of Castile and León (Partido Autonómico Nacionalista de Castilla y León, PANCAL, 1977). None of these survive today, but similar sentiments are now represented by Unidad Regionalista de Castilla y León (1993).[9] In parallel there was a rise of groups advocating Leonesismo, Leonese particularism. Among these were the Grupo Autonómico Leonés (1978) and the Partido Regionalista del País Leonés (PREPAL, 1980), which proposed the creation of a Leonese autonomous community composed of the provinces of León, Salamanca and Zamora. Support for this option was particularly strong in the city of León.[citation needed] [edit] Forming the autonomous community  Castile and León obtained a "pre-autonomic" regime by the Royal Decree Ley 20/1978, June 13, 1978. This set the region on the course toward establishing an autonomous community, a path that had been offered first to Catalonia toward the end of 1977 and would eventually be granted to every part of Spain. Five years later, in 1983, the autonomous community of Castile and León was made concrete by the Statute of Autonomy accepted by both the community and the Spanish state. The Provincial Deputation of León agreed on April 16, 1980 to endorse the Castilian-Leonese process, but then revoked that support January 13, 1983, just as the proposed Organic Law was before the Spanish parliament. The Constitutional Court of Spain upheld the first of these two contradictory Leonese resolutions.[10] The court's decision was met by demonstrations in León and elsewhere in the Leonese territories in favor of a policy of León solo ("León alone"). The roughly 90,000 people who gathered in León at that time[11] constituted the largest demonstration in that city between the revival of democracy and the demonstrations after the 2004 Madrid train bombings.[12] On July 31, 1981, the Provincial Deputation of Segovia initiated a process by which that province would have become, like the provinces of Santander (now Cantabria) and Logroño (now La Rioja) a "uniprovincial" autonomous community in its own right. The municipalities of the province were almost exactly equally divided between this uniprovincial solution and membership in an autonomous Castile and León. The municipal government of Cuéllar adopted a resolution favoring the uniprovincial solution on October 5, 1981; then, less than two months later on December 3 they reversed themselves, tipping the balance among the municipalities in favor of integration with Castile and León. Segovia ultimately became part of Castile and León under the Ley Orgánica 5/1983, which asserted that "for reasons of national interest," as foreseen by Article 144 c) of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, Segovia had abrogated its right to uniprovincial autonomy by failing to develop a concrete proposal in a timely manner. [edit] The autonomous communityCastile and León consists of nine provinces: León, Salamanca and Zamora, which had constituted the Region of León since the territorial division of 1833, plus six of the eight provinces of Old Castile. The Old Castilian provinces of Santander and Logroño were omitted from the new entity of Castile and León. At the same time as the formation of Castile and León, Santander and Logroño each became a uniprovincial autonomous community. Santander is now the autonomous community of Cantabria and Logroño the autonomous community of La Rioja. The separation of Cantabria was motivated by historical, cultural, and geographic differences from the rest of Old Castile. The separation of La Rioja was more a matter of compromise. In principle, looking at history and culture, La Rioja could have been united either with Castile and León, united in a Basque-Navarrese region, or left as a separate region of its own. The center-right UCD favored the former course of action, the center-left PSOE, and leftist CPE the second,[citation needed] but the populace preferred the third option. El Bierzo is the only comarca whose juridical identity is explicitly recognized by the Castilian-Leonese Statute of Autonomy, although many other comarcas have been established. There are some groups in El Bierzo that wish to increase its autonomy, either by enhancing the powers of its Comarcal Council, recuperating the status it had in the 1820s as a province in its own right, gaining the status of a separate autonomous community, or removing all or part of El Bierzo from Castile and León and forming a new union with Galicia. [edit] UNESCO World Heritage Sites
There are six UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Castile and León:
[edit] List of Castles in Castile and LeónThese are some castles of Castile and León: [edit] See also[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
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