Villabandín is a small

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

, part of 15 or so that lead approximately 100 kilometers North-West from the city of León towards

Villablino Villablino (; Leonese: ''Vitsablinu'') is a municipality located in the Laciana comarca of the province of León in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2011 Census, the municipality had a population of 10,353 ...

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 ...

in north western

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It is made up of two parts with less than five residents living in one while the major part of the hamlet has a collection of houses,

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G. ...

s, a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

, a

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

(which remains shut for most of the year), and a

dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for Dance, dancing. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub. The majority of towns and citi ...

that are cut through by a river with two bridges on opposing sides. The hamlet lies between two valleys at an altitude of over 1,000 metres above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. The population is thought to be less than 10 people, all over the age of 65.

History

The area where the hamlet lies is believed to have been invaded by the

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

. At the beginning of the twentieth century, fire caused destruction of much of the hamlet and it was renovated in 1902. Up until the 1980s it was inhabited by poor farmers who worked in the surrounding valleys herding sheep and cattle making a living from the land.

Climate, Geography and Wildlife

The climate is characterized by warm, sun-filled summers contrasting with cold, often snow-filled winters. During the winter months most of the elderly inhabitants actually leave to be looked after by

next of kin A person's next of kin (NOK) are that person's closest living blood relatives. Some countries, such as the United States, have a legal definition of "next of kin". In other countries, such as the United Kingdom, "next of kin" may have no legal d ...

. The surrounding countryside is mainly inhabited by Spanish broom ''Spartium junceum'', their yellow flowers providing swathes of colour over the landscape during the spring months. The surrounding picturesque area has a mountainous topology and is home to the Alto de la Cañada, which is its highest peak at 2154 m above sea level. At these higher altitudes

common heather ''Calluna vulgaris'', common heather, ling, or simply heather, is the sole species in the genus ''Calluna'' in the flowering plant family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing evergreen shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found wide ...

''Calluna vulgaris'' is the dominant vegetation and the extreme isolation and remoteness is an ideal habitat for the

chamois The chamois (''Rupicapra rupicapra'') or Alpine chamois is a species of goat-antelope native to mountains in Europe, from west to east, including the Alps, the Dinarides, the Tatra and the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkan Mountains, the Ril ...

''Rupicapra rupicapra'' and birds such as the

red-billed chough The red-billed chough, Cornish chough or simply chough ( ; ''Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax''), is a bird in the crow family, one of only two species in the genus '' Pyrrhocorax''. Its eight subspecies breed on mountains and coastal cliffs from the we ...

''Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax'' and

cinereous vulture The cinereous vulture (''Aegypius monachus'') is a large raptor in the family Accipitridae and distributed through much of temperate Eurasia. It is also known as the black vulture, monk vulture and Eurasian black vulture. With a body length of , ...

''Aegypius monachus''. Below the tree line forests of

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

''Quercus'' and broom dominate, and in this habitat

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

''Sus scrofa'' and

roe deer The roe deer (''Capreolus capreolus''), also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapt ...

''Capreolus capreolus'' are also present.

People

The festival of 'El Corpus' occurs in June, where people from the neighboring hamlets and town of

come to celebrate. During the summer months the warmer weather brings in more people with generations of families returning for holidays.

Media

Villabandin has been the focus of 'The Dying Villages Project' by the Scottish writer/poet

Tom Pow Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in '' Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

, which was featured in

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...

news outlet about the world's depopulating villages. After reading about it in the

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as ...

, Pow chose the hamlet as his first location to visit and write about.

References

{{coord, 42, 52, N, 6, 08, W, display=title, region:ES_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Populated places in the Province of León