Castrillo Mota de Judíos is a municipality located in the

province of Burgos The province of Burgos is a Provinces of Spain, province of northern Spain, in the northeastern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of Palencia (p ...

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

, Spain. The 2004

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

( INE) indicated the municipality had a population of 71 inhabitants.

Geography

The town is located on a plain area, near the river Odra, west of

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...

and northeast of

Palencia Palencia () is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Palencia. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half of ...

. It is crossed by the roads BU-400 and BU-403.

History

Name

The town was originally named ''Castrillo Motajudíos'' ("Jew hill camp") in 1035 when Jews fleeing from a nearby

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

settled there; it was changed to ''Castrillo Matajudíos'' ("Jew-killer camp") in 1627 during a period of religious persecution of non-Christians in Spain (the Jews had been expelled from Spain in 1492 during the

Spanish Inquisition The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition () was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile and lasted until 1834. It began toward the end of ...

). In June 2015 the name was changed back to ''Castrillo Mota de Judíos'' following a campaign led by mayor Lorenzo Rodríguez leading to a vote among the villagers in May 2014. There have been several anti-Jewish incidents since the name change. In 2022, the town inaugurated a

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

memorial center to pay tribute to its history of Sephardic Jewry.

Personalities

Antonio de Cabezón Antonio de Cabezón (30 March 1510 – 26 March 1566) was a Spanish Renaissance composer and organist. Blind from childhood, he quickly rose to prominence as a performer and was eventually employed by the royal family. He was among the most impor ...

(1510–1566) –

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

Twin towns

Castrillo Mota de Judíos is twinned with: *

Kfar Vradim Kfar Vradim () is a town ( local council) in northern Israel, with a population of in . It is situated south of Ma'alot-Tarshiha and about south of the border with Lebanon. Kfar Vradim is close to Ma'alot-Tarshiha (2 kilometers), Karmiel (16 k ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

References

External links

*
Castrillo Mota de Judíos official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castrillo Matajudios Municipalities in the Province of Burgos Antisemitism in Spain Naming controversies Populated places established in the 11th century 1035 establishments in Europe