Los Arcos
NavarraNavarra
Transparent medieval Romance designation: 'The Arches', after the wall and Roman aqueduct arches the place preserved. The Roman settlement was called Curnonium, a mansio of the Caesar Augusta—Astorga road.
The modern name displaced the Roman Curnonium after the Christian repopulation of the 11th-12th centuries. The descriptive toponym Los Arcos refers to the Roman structures that dominated the landscape south of the Ebro: stretches of wall with their brick arches and, especially, the remains of the aqueduct that supplied the mansio. The town received charters in 1175 from Sancho VI the Wise and became the head of one of the Berrueza convents.
Evolution of the name
- Curnonium Latin (mansio romana) 1st — 5th century
- Los Arcos medieval Castilian from the 12th century
Glossary
- Descriptive toponym
- A place name describing a function or feature of the site (as opposed to anthroponyms, which commemorate a person). Viana = "place of the road"; Fromista = "of wheat"; Hornillos = "of the ovens".
- Fuero
- A medieval legal privilege granted by a king to a town, conferring special rights and freedoms.
- Mansio
- A staging post on the Roman road network, located every 20-30 km along the main roads (Via Aquitana, Via Augusta). Worked as a hostel, horse-changing station and administrative point. Tardajos (Otorigium), Los Arcos (Curnonium) and Castro Urdiales (Flaviobriga) are former Roman mansiones.
- Repopulation
- A medieval process by which the Christian kingdoms of the northern Iberian peninsula resettled territories reconquered from al-Andalus. Generates a whole layer of repopulation toponyms: Bercianos (those from El Bierzo), Navarrete (little Navarre), Castellanos, Gallegos.
- 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
- Lacarra, J.M. — Historia política del reino de Navarra
- Beltrán, A. — Las vías romanas en Navarra (Pamplona: Príncipe de Viana, 1972)
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