Santa María la Real de Nieva is a municipality located in the
province of Segovia,
Castile and León
Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain.
It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of the ...
, Spain, about 30 km (18 mi) northwest of
Segovia town. According to the 2010
census (
INE), the municipality had a population of 1,193 inhabitants.
Villages
This municipality includes 14 villages:
* Aragoneses
* Balisa
* Hoyuelos
* Jemenuño
* Laguna Rodrigo
* Miguel Ibáñez
* Ochando
* Paradinas
* Pascuales
*
Pinilla-Ambroz
* Santa María la Real de Nieva
* Santovenia
* Tabladillo
* Villoslada
The History
All its villages, except Santa María la Real de Nieva village, were repopulated in the 11th century after the region's
Reconquista, during the reign of
Alfonso VI of León and Castile. Santa María la Real de Nieva village was founded in 1395 by King
Henry III, by the mediation of his wife
Catherine of Lancaster.
[ Antonio Miguel Yurami y Antonio Sánchez Sierra (1995), Historia de la aparición de la taumaturga ymagen de nuestra Señora la Soterraña de Nieva. pp. 59-66.] The town's founding was due to the finding of a buried wooden sculpture of
Mary three years before, probably hidden since
muslem invasion, in a piece of open ground where the village is now.
[ Antonio Miguel Yurami y Antonio Sánchez Sierra (1995), Historia de la aparición de la taumaturga ymagen de nuestra Señora la Soterraña de Nieva. pp. 48.] This fact was considered a miracle, and the Queen ordered the building of a sanctuary and a village around it, to the worship of this Virgin's image,
called ''Soterraña'', an old Spanish word that means 'subterranean'. The Crown proclaimed some privileges to foster the settlement in the village on 1395 and 1407, like tax and conscription exemptions.
During her stay in Santa María la Real de Nieva, Queen
Blanche I of Navarre
Blanche I (6 July 1387Anthony (1931) states that she was the fourth-born daughter of King Charles III of Navarre by Queen Eleanor, and she was preceded by Joan, Maria and Margaret and the two latter died early. Anthony defines Blanche's exact birt ...
died on April 1, 1441, and she was buried at its church.
[ Nerea Alejos]
Ujué, fortaleza de devoción
in el Diario de Navarra.
On October 28, 1473, King
Henry IV called a meeting of the Courts of Castile at Santa Maria's monastery.
[ Carlos Arnanz Ruiz, (1972) ''Santa Mª. la real de Nieva''. Edited by the Town Hall.]
During the
revolt of the Comuneros in 1520,
Rodrigo Ronquillo
Rodrigo Ronquillo y Briceño (1471 - 9 December 1552) was a Spanish military and noble known for his intervention at the Revolt of the Comuneros, fighting with the royalists. During the revolt in 1520, Rodrigo Ronquillo, chief of royal troops in t ...
, chief of royal troops in the area, set his headquarters in Santa Maria la Real de Nieva, and lost a battle near the town.
In the 1834 territorial reorganization of Spain, Santa María la Real de Nieva became one of the five
legal districts in Province of Segovia.
[Santa María la Real de Nieva]
in Segovia Province Administration's web.
Santa María la Real de Nieva's municipality grew by the adding of the surrounding villages; Ochando and Pascuales (1965); Aragoneses, Balisa, Hoyuelos, Laguna Rodrigo, Miguel Ibañez, Pinilla-Ambroz, Tabladillo, and Villoslada (1969); Jemenuño, Santovenia, and Paradinas (1970).
Monuments
There are three
national monuments
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
in the municipality:
[Municipality monuments]
in the Spanish Culture Ministry.
*
Monastery of Our Lady of Soterraña, in Santa Maria la Real de Nieva town, is a 15th-century
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
building notable by its cloister and facade.
*Chapel of Saint Michael, in Villoslada, is a small
Romanesque temple built between 12th and 13th centuries.
*Church of Our Lady of Assumption, in Paradinas, is a 16th-century Gothic building with some
neoclassical elements.
References
Bibliography
* Antonio Miguel Yurami y Antonio Sánchez Sierra (1995), ''Historia de la aparición de la taumaturga ymagen de nuestra Señora la Soterraña de Nieva.''
* Antonio Sánchez Sierra (1992), ''El monasterio de Santa María la Real de Nieva''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Maria la Real de Nieva
Municipalities in the Province of Segovia