Alaejos is a municipality located in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2011

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

(

INE INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center * Instituto Nacional de Estadística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional de Estatística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional Elec ...

), the municipality has a population of 1,467 inhabitants.

History

Even though the origins of the town remain uncertain, it is known that it was part of the old province of Toro. Its name around the 12th and 13th century was Falafeios. One theory says that it might have been founded by the Castilian monarchs as a hamlet in the reconquered territories during the ''

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

''. By the mid-14th century, the village had been sold to

Medina del Campo Medina del Campo is a town and municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Part of the Province of Valladolid, it is the centre of a farming area. History Medina del Campo grew in importance thanks to its fairs ...

by Diego Fernández de Medina. It was a jurisdictional dominion by the

Bishop of Ávila A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, Alfonso de Fonseca, until the 19th century. During the 15th century, Doña Juana de Portugal (

Enrique IV Henry IV of Castile ( Castilian: ''Enrique IV''; 5 January 1425 – 11 December 1474), King of Castile and León, nicknamed the Impotent, was the last of the weak late-medieval kings of Castile and León. During Henry's reign, the nobles became ...

's wife) was imprisoned in the castle of Alaejos. In 1520, the

comuneros Comunero may refer to: * Revolt of the Comuneros, a rebellion in Castile in 1520–1521 * Revolt of the Comuneros (Paraguay) The Revolt of the Comuneros ( es, Revolución Comunera) was a series of uprisings by settlers in Paraguay in the Vi ...

destroyed a large part of the town. In 1595 it joined

Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...

's Bishopric, even though it kept being part of the

Province of Segovia Segovia () is a province of central/northern Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered by the province of Burgos in the north, Soria in the northeast, Guadalajara in the east, Madrid in the sou ...

. By year 1785, the Royal Economical Society of Charity (Real Sociedad Caritativo Económica) was founded in the town as a part of the spirit of the

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...

, which promoted several very advanced economic, social and educational activities for the childhood and the youth of the town. The town was declared Conjunto Histórico-Artístico (the equivalent to

Heritage Preservation Heritage Preservation (active 1973-2014) was an American non-profit organization. Its mission was to preserve the nation's heritage for future generations through innovative leadership, education, and programs. As of June 30, 2015 the organization ...

) in 1980.

Trivia

Alaejos is the antipode of the capital of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

References

Municipalities in the Province of Valladolid {{Valladolid-geo-stub

History

Trivia

See also

References