|
|
|
|
|
|
VALLADOLID
- For the city in Mexico, see Valladolid, Yucatán. For the municipality in the Philippines, see Valladolid, Negros Occidental.
Valladolid is an industrial city and its municipality in central Spain, upon the Rio Pisuerga and within the Ribera del Duero region. It is the capital of the province of Valladolid and of the autonomous community of Castile and Leon, therefore is part of the historical region of Castile. As of the 2004 census, the population of the city of Valladolid proper was 321,713, and the population of the entire urban area was estimated to be near 400,000. It is also popularly called Pucela, a nickname whose origin is not clear, but probably refers to a few knights who accompanied "Juana de Arco".
[edit] Etymology
The most probable origin of the term is Latin: VALLIS, "Valley"; and Celtic: TOLITUM, "place of confluence of waters" [1], The name is also linked with the Arabic name for the city بلد الوليد meaning The City of Walid.
[edit] History
Valladolid was captured from the Moors in the 10th century, being a small village improved by count Pedro Ansúrez in the 11th century; by the 15th century it was the residence of the kings of Castile and remained the capital of the Kingdom of Spain until 1561, when Philip II, born here, moved the capital to Madrid. Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid in 1506 in a house which is now a Museum dedicated to him. It was made the capital of the kingdom again between 1601 and 1606 by Philip III. It was in that period when Cervantes published his first edition of Don Quixote in 1604.
The city nonetheless boasts few architectural manifestations of its former glory. Some monuments include the unfinished cathedral, the church of Santa Maria la Antigua, the Plaza Mayor (the template for that of Madrid and of future main squares in the Castilian-speaking world), the National Sculpture Museum, next to the church of Saint Paul, which includes Spain's greatest collections of polychrome wood sculptures, and the Faculty of Law of the University of Valladolid, whose façade is one of the few surviving works by Narciso Tomei, the same artist who did the transparente in Toledo Cathedral. The Science Museum is next to Pisuerga river. The only surviving house of Miguel de Cervantes is also located in Valladolid. Although unfinished, Cathedral of Valladolid was designed by Juan de Herrera, architect of El Escorial.
Valladolid is an economic motor of the autonomous community, having an important automobile industry (IVECO, FASA-Renault, Michelin). There is an airport at nearby Villanubla, with connections to London-Stansted, Paris, Brussels-Charleroi, Lisbon, Barcelona and Vigo. The city is also host to one of the foremost (and oldest) international film festivals, the Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid (Seminci), founded in 1956.
Valladolid is also the city in which Christopher Columbus died in 1506.
On November 3, 2006, Valladolid signed an agreement to become a sister city to Orlando, Florida. [citation needed]
[edit] See also
|
|
|
|
|
|
|