Castrillo de los Polvazares

Camino Francés

LeónCastilla y León

Compound toponym. Castrillo, a diminutive of Latin castrum ('fortress, fortified enclosure'), describes a small castro or a minor defensive settlement. De los Polvazares, derived from the Latin pulvis ('dust') with augmentative suffix, alludes to the dusty quality of the clay soil of the Maragatería plateau.

Castrillo, a diminutive of castro, is applied in peninsular toponymy both to genuinely small pre-Roman castros (inherited with their original form) and to minor medieval fortifications. The Maragato one actually sits on a pre-Roman Asturian castro. The second element describes the soil: polvazar is a Castilian derivative of pulvis with the augmentative suffix -azar, parallel to cangrejal or arenal. The clay soils of the Maragatería, when they dry in summer, generate a fine reddish dust characteristic of the area —⁠the 'Maragato dust' spoken of in 18th-century texts. The village is one of the best-preserved architectural ensembles in the western Peninsula: a single cobbled street, stone houses with wooden balconies, heraldic shields over the lintels, the old Maragato muleteer inns. Concha Espina set her 1914 novel La Esfinge Maragata here, a milestone of Spanish regionalist literature.

Evolution of the name

  1. castrum + pulvis late Latin 6th — 10th centuries
  2. Castriello de Polvazares medieval Castilian 12th — 15th centuries
  3. Castrillo de los Polvazares modern Castilian from the 16th century

Reflections, to the letter

The name names two things at once: a small hillfort and a soil made of dust. The second clicks underfoot on the Calle Real, cobbled in the eighteenth century so the clay mud that gives the village its name would stop rutting under the wheels of the Maragato carters. The stone houses with wooden balconies and crests over their lintels were those carters' inns; in summer, when a cart goes by, the red dust of the Polvazares still rises.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Glossary

Castrum
A Roman military camp, originally permanent or seasonal, frequently reused in the Early Middle Ages as a defensive nucleus. The origin of hundreds of peninsular (Castro, Castrillo, Castrojeriz) and British toponyms (-chester, -caster: Manchester, Lancaster).
Diminutive
A derived form indicating smaller size or affection, formed with suffixes such as -illo, -ito, -uelo, -ete. Substantivised plural diminutives abound in toponymy: Hornillos, Boadilla, Calzadilla, Comillas, Pradillos.
Pre-Roman
Prior to the Romanisation of the Iberian peninsula (3rd century BC); applied to toponyms, linguistic roots and populations.

Sources

  • Diputación de León — Inventario de patrimonio jacobeo
  • Espina, C. — La Esfinge Maragata (1914)

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Camino Francés

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. El Acebo
  3. Manjarín
  4. Foncebadón
  5. El Ganso
  6. Rabanal del Camino
  7. Santa Catalina de Somoza
  8. Castrillo de los Polvazares
  9. Murias de Rechivaldo
  10. Astorga
  11. San Justo de la Vega
  12. Santibáñez de Valdeiglesias
  13. Villares de Órbigo
  14. Hospital de Órbigo
  15. ··· toward the start