Valdelacasa
SalamancaCastilla y León
Transparent compound: Val de la Casa = 'valley of the house', a medieval Castilian agglutination of valle (from the Latin vallis) + casa (from the Latin casa). The toponym commemorates the early medieval rural possession of an isolated casa solar in the river Sangusín valley.
The toponym is an agglutinated medieval phrase: val (the apocopated form of valle, preserved in dozens of Castilian toponyms: Valdezate, Valdezcaray, Valduérdiga) + the article la + casa. The process parallels Molinaseca (dry mill) or Villalba (white town): the phrase becomes fixed as a proper name through continued use and is agglutinated in writing in the 15th century. The village is one of the smallest stops on the Camino del Plata —fewer than a hundred inhabitants today—, but preserves a singular landmark: the Castle of Valdelacasa, a 15th-century keep refurbished as a fortified residential house, the only Gothic castle in southern Salamanca preserving its original black slate roof. The casa of the toponym, in literal sense, is still there eight centuries later.
Evolution of the name
- Val de la Casa medieval Castilian 12th century
- Valdelacasa Castilian from the 15th century (aglutinación)
Glossary
- Agglutination
- A process by which two or more separate words merge into a single one over time. Molina seca → Molinaseca, Pontem veteram → Pontevedra.
- Phrase
- A combination of words functioning as a single grammatical unit (noun + adjective, verb + object). In toponymy, phrases tend to agglutinate: Villanueva, Fuentespina, Molinaseca.
Sources
- Corominas, J. — Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico
If you have a correction or an observation about this information,
please write to us through the form at the foot of the site.
We will grow more precise thanks to your contribution.
Vía de la Plata