Wamba

Camino de Madrid

ValladolidCastilla y León

Unique hagiotoponym in Spain derived from the Germanic anthroponym Wamba, Visigothic king of the Hispani between the years 672 and 680. The Germanic base *wamba means 'belly, womb, broad abdomen' in Gothic and other western Germanic languages, originally attributed as a descriptive nickname. The toponym commemorates the tradition that places the king's burial in the Mozarabic church of Santa María of the place after his deposition and monastic confinement by Ervig in 680. It counts among the few peninsular toponyms with directly attested Germanic etymology.

Wamba is among the few Visigothic anthroponyms preserved as a peninsular toponym without significant phonetic alteration. The form is documented in Gothic, the eastern Germanic language of the Visigothic people, as a descriptive appellative applied to persons of robust build or broad waist. King Wamba, elected by the Visigothic nobles in 672 after the death of Reccesvinth, governed the Hispanic-Visigothic kingdom for eight years and directed the last campaign of peninsular territorial unification, suppressing the Vasconian rebellion of 673 and the uprising of Duke Paul in Septimania. His reign ended in 680 when, according to the chronicles, he was tonsured as a monk by his counsellor Ervig while he lay ill —⁠tonsuring a king canonically disabled him from reigning⁠—⁠. Wamba retired to the monastery of Pampliega (Burgos) and spent there the last seven years of his life. The local Wamba tradition places his burial in the village's Santa María church, where an empty sepulchre attributed to the king stands and the toponym preserves his name in fossilised form. The 10th-century Mozarabic church, prior to the transfer, belongs to the few complete pre-Romanesque temples of the Pisuerga valley.

Evolution of the name

  1. *wamba common Germanic before the 7th century
  2. Wamba (rey visigodo) Gothic / Latinized 7th century
  3. Wamba medieval Castilian from the 9th century

Reflections, to the letter

The church of Santa María de Wamba, Mozarabic from the 10th century with Romanesque reforms from the 12th, is one of the least known and most singular pre-Romanesque monuments of the Meseta. Three naves separated by horseshoe arches on columns reused from the old Visigothic monastery, tripartite east end with barrel vaults, capitals sculpted with solar and vegetal symbology. The underground crypt-ossuary, discovered in 1968, houses more than one thousand five hundred disarticulated skeletons from the 12th to 16th centuries —⁠the largest ossuary concentration preserved in Spain⁠—⁠, in a sixty-square-metre space reminiscent of Czech and Portuguese ossuaries. The sepulchre attributed to King Wamba, 17th-century marble slab raised over an empty grave, is at the foot of the altar. The entire church, designated as Site of Cultural Interest in 1931, maintains the pre-Romanesque atmosphere intact and is one of the most singular halts of the interior Camino.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Glossary

Anthroponym
A personal name, often used as the base of toponyms (Lucronius → Logroño, Sigerici → Castrojeriz, Sacavus → Sacavém).
Attested
A form or word documented in writing in historical sources; opposed to "reconstructed" (forms proposed by comparative inference but not actually documented).
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.
Hagiotoponym
A place name formed from a saint's name (from the Greek ἅγιος, hágios, "holy"). Frequent in the medieval Christian repopulation: Sansol (Sanctus Zoilus), Santander (Sancti Emeterii), Donostia (Done Sebastian).
Pre-Roman
Prior to the Romanisation of the Iberian peninsula (3rd century BC); applied to toponyms, linguistic roots and populations.
Visigothic Hispania
Peninsular historical period between the 5th and 8th centuries during which the Visigothic people, federation of eastern Germanic tribes settled in Narbonensian Gaul since 418, governed the entire Iberian Peninsula from their capital of Toledo. The Visigothic dynasty preserved Latin as administrative and ecclesiastical language, codified Hispanic law in the Liber Iudiciorum (654) and Romanised Nicene Christianity with Germanic and Byzantine contributions in architecture, goldsmithery and liturgy. The reign of Wamba (672–680) represents the last phase of territorial consolidation before the Muslim conquest of 711.
Wamba crypt-ossuary
Underground space beneath the Mozarabic church of Santa María de Wamba that guards more than one thousand five hundred disarticulated human skeletons from the old parish cemetery between the 12th and 16th centuries. Discovered in 1968 during a temple restoration, it is the largest ossuary concentration preserved in Spain, comparable to the Czech (Sedlec) and Portuguese (Évora) ossuaries. The walls are partially decorated with geometric motifs formed with long bones.

Sources

  • Julián de Toledo — Historia Wambae Regis (siglo VII)
  • García Moreno, L.A. — El reino visigodo
  • Cabañero Subiza, B. — Las iglesias mozárabes castellanas

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Camino de Madrid

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. Villalón de Campos
  3. Cuenca de Campos
  4. Berrueces
  5. Medina de Rioseco
  6. Castromonte
  7. Peñaflor de Hornija
  8. Wamba
  9. Simancas
  10. Valladolid
  11. Puente Duero
  12. Olmedo
  13. Alcazarén
  14. Villeguillo
  15. ··· toward the start