Don Benito () is a Spanish town and municipality in the

province of Badajoz The province of Badajoz () is a province of western Spain located in the autonomous community of Extremadura. It was formed in 1833. It is bordered by the provinces of Cáceres in the north, Toledo, Ciudad Real in the east, Córdoba in the s ...

Extremadura Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, it ...

, near the left bank of the

Guadiana The Guadiana River (, also , , ), or Odiana, is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from the e ...

river. According to the 2014

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 inc ...

, the municipality has a population of 37,011.

History

Don Benito dates from the 15th century, when it was founded by refugees from Don Llorente, who deserted their own town due to the danger of floods from the Guadiana. On 28 March 1809, the 9 km separating Don Benito from

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

was the site of a major French victory against Spanish troops during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spai ...

. By 2021, the municipal government of Don Benito worked alongside that of Villanueva de la Serena to fuse the two neighbouring municipalities into a single one, paving the way for a 2022 non-binding consultation. On 8 November 2021, the

Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or ...

sanctioned the celebration of the consultation, to be held on 20 February 2022. Both municipalities approved the merging, in the case of Don Benito by a whisker (a 66.2% of yes votes relative to the 66.0% threshold set in advance).

Geography

Don Benito has 37,048 inhabitants, and is part of an urban area with Villanueva de la Serena (26,071 inhabitants) 5 km away. The municipality is composed by the town of Don Benito and seven villages:

Demographics

Colors= id:a value:gray(0.9) id:b value:gray(0.7) id:c value:rgb(1,1,1) id:d value:rgb(0.6,0.7,0.8) ImageSize = width:700 height:350 PlotArea = left:50 bottom:30 top:30 right:30 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:40000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:b increment:10000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:a increment:1000 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:c BarData= bar:1842 text:1842 bar:1857 text:1857 bar:1877 text:1877 bar:1887 text:1887 bar:1900 text:1900 bar:1910 text:1910 bar:1920 text:1920 bar:1930 text:1930 bar:1940 text:1940 bar:1950 text:1950 bar:1960 text:1960 bar:1970 text:1970 bar:1981 text:1981 bar:1991 text:1991 bar:2001 text:2001 bar:2011 text:2011 bar:2012 text:2012 bar:2014 text:2014 PlotData= color:d width:20 align:left bar:1842 from:0 till: 14610 bar:1857 from:0 till: 14836 bar:1877 from:0 till: 15003 bar:1887 from:0 till: 16287 bar:1900 from:0 till: 16656 bar:1910 from:0 till: 19212 bar:1920 from:0 till: 21059 bar:1930 from:0 till: 21196 bar:1940 from:0 till: 21495 bar:1950 from:0 till: 22840 bar:1960 from:0 till: 25566 bar:1970 from:0 till: 26718 bar:1981 from:0 till: 28418 bar:1991 from:0 till: 28879 bar:2001 from:0 till: 31538 bar:2011 from:0 till: 36660 bar:2012 from:0 till: 37048 bar:2014 from:0 till: 37011 PlotData= bar:1842 at: 14610 fontsize:s text: 14,610 shift:(-10,5) bar:1857 at: 14836 fontsize:s text: 14,836 shift:(-10,5) bar:1877 at: 15003 fontsize:s text: 15 003 shift:(-10,5) bar:1887 at: 16287 fontsize:s text: 16,287 shift:(-10,5) bar:1900 at: 16656 fontsize:s text: 16,656 shift:(-15,5) bar:1910 at: 19212 fontsize:s text: 19,212 shift:(-15,5) bar:1920 at: 21059 fontsize:s text: 21,059 shift:(-15,5) bar:1930 at: 21196 fontsize:s text: 21,196 shift:(-15,5) bar:1940 at: 21495 fontsize:s text: 21,495 shift:(-15,5) bar:1950 at: 22840 fontsize:s text: 22,840 shift:(-15,5) bar:1960 at: 25566 fontsize:s text: 25,566 shift:(-15,5) bar:1970 at: 26718 fontsize:s text: 26,718 shift:(-15,5) bar:1981 at: 28418 fontsize:s text: 28,418 shift:(-15,5) bar:1991 at: 28879 fontsize:s text: 28,879 shift:(-15,5) bar:2001 at: 31538 fontsize:s text: 31,538 shift:(-15,5) bar:2011 at: 36660 fontsize:s text: 36,660 shift:(-15,5) bar:2012 at: 37048 fontsize:s text: 37,048 shift:(-15,5) bar:2014 at: 37011 fontsize:s text: 37,011 shift:(-15,5)

Transport

The town is served by a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

on the

Ciudad Real Ciudad Real (, ; en, "Royal City") is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region. History It was founded ...

Badajoz Badajoz (; formerly written ''Badajos'' in English) is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana. The populati ...

railway, part of an international line that links

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

with

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

. It has been interested, along with the nearby Villanueva de la Serena, by a project of a

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

way, not yet finalized."The project of the Don Benito-Villanueva tramway will be taken by the regional board"
''

Hoy Hoy ( sco, Hoy; from Norse , meaning "high island") is an island in Orkney, Scotland, measuring – the second largest in the archipelago, after Mainland. A natural causeway, ''the Ayre'', links the island to the smaller South Walls; the two ...

'', 12-2-2008 The town is also the southern terminus of the EXA2 motorway from Miajadas.

Famous residents

* Florinda Chico (1926-2011), actress * Jesús Gil Manzano (b. 1984), referee * Juanma Gómez (b. 1981), footballer * Pedro Porro (b. 1999), footballer

Twin towns

Fquih Ben Salah Fquih Ben Salah or ''Fkih Ben Saleh'' Fkih Ben Salah (in Berber: Fqih Ben Ṣaleḥ, ⴼⵇⵉⵀ ⴱⴻⵏ ⵚⴰⵍⴻⵃ; in Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: ...

, Morocco

References

External links

Don Benito official website

Municipalities in the Province of Badajoz {{Extremadura-geo-stub