Calzada de Valdunciel

Vía de la Plata

SalamancaCastilla y León

Compound: calzada (Latin calceata, 'paved', see Calzadilla and Calzada de Béjar) + Valdunciel, from the compound Val + dunciel = 'Valley of Dunciel', an early medieval personal name. The village sits on the exact course of Roman Via XXIV between Salamanca and Zamora.

The toponym combines two geographical-historical references. Calzada, from the Latin calceata ('paved', participle of calceare 'to shoe'), alludes to the fact that the village sits on the exact course of Roman Via XXIV. It is the third Plata Camino village commemorating the road in its name, after Calzada de Béjar (in the range) and Carcaboso (with its three milestones). The second element, Valdunciel, is the agglutination of Valle de Dunciel, where Dunciel would be an early medieval personal name, possibly of Germanic-Gothic origin (variant of Donzel or Dompniel, without firm attestation). The hamlet was the head of a small episcopal seigneury of the Salamanca diocese from the 12th century. Today the Church of Santa Elena, Romanesque-Mudéjar of the 12th in brick, preserves fragments of medieval wall painting — one of the few Plata Camino temples with pictorial conservation.

Evolution of the name

  1. calceata late Latin 6th — 9th century
  2. Val de Dunciel medieval Castilian 10th — 12th century
  3. Calzada de Valdunciel Castilian from the 14th century

Reflections, to the letter

The village lies along the Roman road that named it: the Vía de la Plata enters the centre and runs down Calle Santa Elena, in front of the oldest church in town. The paved stone once called calceata is still there, under the asphalt and under your boots. You tread the whole place name every time you cross the high street.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

probable

Glossary

Agglutination
A process by which two or more separate words merge into a single one over time. Molina seca → Molinaseca, Pontem veteram → Pontevedra.
Anthroponym
A personal name, often used as the base of toponyms (Lucronius → Logroño, Sigerici → Castrojeriz, Sacavus → Sacavém).
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

  • Roldán Hervás, J.M. — Itineraria Hispana
  • Corominas, J. — Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico

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Vía de la Plata

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. Benavente
  3. Granja de Moreruela
  4. Montamarta
  5. Zamora
  6. Villanueva de Campeán
  7. El Cubo de la Tierra del Vino
  8. Calzada de Valdunciel
  9. Salamanca
  10. San Pedro de Rozados
  11. Fuenterroble de Salvatierra
  12. Valdelacasa
  13. Calzada de Béjar
  14. Baños de Montemayor
  15. ··· toward the start