Torquemada is a municipality in the

province of Palencia Palencia is a Provinces of Spain, province of northern Spain, in the northern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Castile and León in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. It is bordered by the provi ...

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. According to the 2010

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), the municipality had a population of 1098 inhabitants. It is the namesake and believed to be the birthplace of famed

Grand Inquisitor Grand Inquisitor (, literally ''Inquisitor General'' or ''General Inquisitor'') was the highest-ranked official of the Inquisition. The title usually refers to the inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, in charge of appeals and cases of aristoc ...

Tomas de Torquemada Tomas may refer to: People * Tomás (given name), a Spanish, Portuguese, and Gaelic given name * Tomas (given name), a Swedish, Dutch, and Lithuanian given name * Tomáš, a Czech and Slovak given name * Tomàs, a Catalan given name and surname * ...

. The village is known for its

peppers Pepper(s) may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plants ** Black pepper ** Long pepper ** Kampot pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ...

, an important crop for the local economy.

Etymology

The village name came from Latin ''turris cremata'' "burnt tower".

Curiosities and historical data

The Infanta Catalina was born here on January 14, 1507. She was the daughter of Queen

Juana of Castile Joanna of Castile (6 November 1479 – 12 April 1555), historically known as Joanna the Mad (), was the nominal queen of Castile from 1504 and queen of Aragon from 1516 to her death in 1555. She was the daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile ...

and Felipe of Habsburg. After Felipe's death, his remains rested here for a period of 3 months. In this village is the home of the writer

José Zorrilla y Moral José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

, author of "

Don Juan Tenorio ''Don Juan Tenorio: Drama religioso-fantástico en dos partes'' (Don Juan Tenorio: Religious-Fantasy Drama in Two Parts) is a Play (theatre), play written by José Zorrilla and produced in 1844. It is the most romantic of the two principal Span ...

", traditionally performed every year on

All Saints Day All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day, the Feast of All Saints, the Feast of All Hallows, the Solemnity of All Saints, and Hallowmas, is a Christianity, Christian solemnity celebrated in honour of all the saints of the Church, whether ...

. There is a plaque in Zorrilla's memory, located in front of his summer residence. In the summer of 2007, the "

Ruta Quetzal The Ruta Quetzal (also called ''Aventura 92'' and ''Ruta BBVA'' in different stages) is an education and cultural exchange project for young people directed by the famous Spanish adventurer Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo and continued by his son, � ...

" passed by here, in honor of the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Infanta Catalina.

References

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