Villaviciosa de Odón () is a municipality in the western zone of the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; es, Comunidad de Madrid ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, and of the Central Plateau (''Meseta Central''). Its capital and largest munic ...

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") , ...

. The town is located 15 km west of

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 ...

's city center, in the western zone of the metro area. The

Spanish Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = Spanish Air and Space Force Anthem , mascot = , anniversaries = 10 December , equipment ...

Museum and the

Universidad Europea de Madrid European University of Madrid (''Universidad Europea de Madrid'' in Spanish language, UEM) is a private university in Madrid, Spain. History Founded in 1995, the school was purchased in 1999 by Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc. In 2004, Sylv ...

are located within the municipality. Villaviciosa's quiet lifestyle and its proximity to Madrid propitiated rapid and extensive development during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Because of its proximity to the Universidad Europea de Madrid, it has become a

university town A college town or university town is a community (often a separate town or city, but in some cases a town/city neighborhood or a district) that is dominated by its university population. The university may be large, or there may be several s ...

, with well-developed residential area and amenities for students. The town contains the

Castle of Villaviciosa de Odón The Castle of Villaviciosa de Odón is a palace-fortress complex found in the small town of the same name near Madrid, Spain. It is located on Madrid Avenue. The first construction on the site was built in the 15th century by the Counts of Chin ...

History

The first news of population formed in the vicinity of Villaviciosa are of the Visigoth era as demonstrates the necropolis found when the splitting of the M-501 road from Villaviciosa until Navas del Rey. We also know that there was a population nucleus on the land now occupied by Villaviciosa; it was the old Calatalifa, this name comes from the Arabic قلعة الخليفة Qal`at al-Khalifa or Castillo del Califa, populated quoted by Ibn Hayyan chronicler in 939, but probably its foundation occurred earlier. Like many other towns in the Community of Madrid, Calatalifa was occupied by Castilian troops 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 N ...

. The Christian advance, after conquering Mayrit (

), ended with the conquest of Toledo by

Alfonso VI Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

. Calatalifa was a settlement of three cultures, Christians, Arabs and Jews at the time, but disappeared towards the end of the thirteenth century. The population reappears in the mid-fifteenth century already with the name of Odón: a handwritten document dated in 1459 attests to a purchase-sale of land and is preserved in the Town Hall. Already in the early eighteenth century the name of Villaviciosa appeared on official documents, and even alternate the two names, as we can see in a decree of

Felipe V Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 45 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish mona ...

that designates the area as "Real Bosque": ''"He venido en declarar que el nuevo Bosque de la villa de Odón o Villaviciosa, que es propio del Ynfante don Felipe, mi hijo, y sus límites, con sus aumentos o extensiones que en adelante tuviere, son y han de ser Bosque Real, con todos sus privilegios y libertades".'' By 1801, the neighbouring village of Sacedón de Canales had been completely depopulated: those left there moved to Villaviciosa. In this year Villaviciosa annexed the territory of the lost town of Sacedón de Canales.

References

External links

Entertainment website about Villaviciosa de Odón

The official site of the city

The official site of the Universidad Europea de Madrid

VillaviciosaHoy, website of news about the city
Municipalities in the Community of Madrid {{Madrid-geo-stub

History

See also

References

External links