Barbastro
Camino Catalán por San Juan de la Peña
HuescaAragón
Pre-Roman toponym attested from the 2nd century BC as Burtina (Pliny, Antonine Itinerary) and later Latinised as Vertustanum. The most sustained etymology —Antonio Beltrán— derives the Ibero-Aquitanian base from an orographic compound *burtin- with the value of 'fortified height'. The medieval form Barbastrum documented from the 10th century preserves the Latin locative suffix on the pre-Roman base.
Burtina was an Iberian city of the Vascones according to Roman sources, before its Romanisation as a mansion of the road between Caesaraugusta and Ilerda. After the Muslim conquest of 714, Barbastro was an important place of the Cordovan Upper March and then of the Taifa kingdom of Zaragoza. The greatest historical event of the place is the Crusade of Barbastro of 1064, the first great European crusade of western Christianity, preached by Pope Alexander II and organised with French, Norman, Catalan and Aragonese troops. The taking of Barbastro was the first great military success of the Christian Reconquista, organisational example for the subsequent crusades to Jerusalem (1099). The town fell back into Muslim hands in 1065 and was definitively reconquered by Peter I of Aragón in 1100.
Evolution of the name
- Burtina Iberian 2nd centuries BC–5th
- Barbastrum / Barbastro medieval Aragonese from the 10th century
Glossary
- Attested
- A form or word documented in writing in historical sources; opposed to "reconstructed" (forms proposed by comparative inference but not actually documented).
- Crusade of Barbastro (1064)
- Military expedition of western Christianity against the Taifa kingdom of Zaragoza, organised in 1064 with bull of Pope Alexander II and preached by Hugh Candidus, papal legate. It gathered Catalan-Aragonese troops (Ramon Berenguer I of Barcelona, Sancho Ramírez of Aragón) and an important contingent of Frankish crusaders (William of Montreuil, Robert Crispin) and Normans. The taking of Barbastro on the 18th of August 1064 was the first great success of the Christian Reconquista organised with papal support and a model for the subsequent crusades to the Holy Land (1095–1291). The city returned to Muslim hands in 1065.
- Etymology
- The origin and history of a word and the phonetic and semantic changes it has undergone. An etymology may be confirmed, probable or disputed depending on documentary attestations and linguistic parallels.
- Locative suffix
- A Castilian ending marking "place of" or "workshop where X is worked": -ería (panadería, herrería), -ero/-era (barquera, Itero "place of the road"). From the Latin -arium.
- Pre-Roman
- Prior to the Romanisation of the Iberian peninsula (3rd century BC); applied to toponyms, linguistic roots and populations.
- Roman road
- A stone-paved Roman highway, part of the imperial communications network (Via Aquitana, Via Augusta, Iter ab Asturica); many such roads became medieval routes and, later, stretches of the Camino de Santiago.
Sources
- Beltrán Martínez, A. — Burtina y Barbastro
- Laliena Corbera, C. — La Cruzada de Barbastro
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Camino Catalán por San Juan de la Peña