Last modified: 2020-02-16 by ivan sache
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The municipality of Villanueva de los Infantes (5,030 inhabitants in 2018 vs. 10,386 in 1950; 13,506 ha; municipal website) is located 100 km south-east of Ciudad Real.
Villanueva was already settled in the Ages of Copper (2000 BC) and
Bronze (1800 BC), but the place became significant only after the Roman
conquest, as evidenced by the remains of a road, two bridges, the big
Treviño bridge included, and an aqueduct.
Destroyed during the Muslim invasion, the town was rebuilt as Jamila;
some believe that this toponym is of Hebrew origin and that most
re-settlers were Jews. In the aftermath of the battle of Las Navas de
Tolosa (1212), Alfonso VIII initiated the re-settlement of the
reconquered Mancha. Jamila was mentioned in 1245 as a hamlet colonized
by the Knights of the Order of Saint John. Deemed unhealthy, Jamila was
abandoned by its inhabitants, who moved to La Moraleja, a hamlet
depending on Montiel.
In the early 15th century, the population of La Moraleja was trice that
of Montiel; accordingly, Infant Enrique of Aragón, Master of the Order
of Saint James, granted the status of villa to La Moraleja on 10
February 1421. As a reward to their benefactor and his brothers,
Infantes Alonso, Juan, and Pedro, the town was renamed to Villanueva de
los Infantes (The Infantes' New Town).
Villanueva de los Infantes, whose population increased to more than
5,000 in the middle of the 16th century, was proclaimed the
administrative and religious capital of Campo de Montiel in 1573 by
Philip II. The town was also the seat of the government of the Order of
Saint James, with a strong influence on Campo de Montiel and parts of
the present-day's Provinces of Albacete, Murcia, and Jaén.
Outgrowing Alcaraz, Villanueva became also La Mancha's spiritual center
during the Spanish Golden Age. The town was the birth place of Antonio
de Molina (1560-1612/1619), an ascetic writer, author of clerical
treaties translated in several languages, such as Instrucción de
Sacerdotes and Exercicios espirituales para personas ocupadas de cosas
de su salvación; of Fernando Ballesteros Saavedra (1580-1654), a church
writer; of Friar Tomás de la Virgen (Rodrigo de Tomás y Sánchez,
1587-1647), a nephew of St. Thomas of Villanueva and the preferred
councilor of kings Philip III and Philip IV and their court; of Juan de
Cueto y Mena (1604-1669?), a playwright who might have influenced Pedro
Calderón de la Barca; and of Matías de Arteaga y Alfaro (1633-1703), a
baroque painter and engraver mostly active in Seville.
During the Peninsular War, Villanueva was a stronghold of resistance to
the French, established in Manzanares. The town was seized on 1 January
1810 by the invaders but reconquered one year and a half later. The
Superior Government of La Mancha was set up there; the Spanish
Constitution was proclaimed for the first time in the province on 25
July 1812.
Queen Regent Maria Christina granted the title of ciudad to Villanueva
de los Infantes in 1895.
Villanueva de los Infantes was registered as an Historical and Artistic
Monument by Decree No. 3,708, issued on 20 December 1974 by the Spanish
Government and published on 31 January 1975 in the Spanish official
gazette, No. 27, p. 2,154 (text).
Nicknamed La Mancha's Santillana, as a reference to Santillana del Mar
(Cantabria), Villanueva features "a really extraordinary array of
artistic and monumental elements". Among the salient elements are the
Plaza Mayor, lined with buildings designed in neo-classic style with
stone arches and wooden balconies; the St. Andrew parish church, erected
in the 16th century mostly in late Gothic style; the Remedy Hospital,
built in the 17th century of freestone; the old grain barn, with
original windows in wrought iron, dating from the 16th century; the
portico of the Fontes palace; the Arch House and its neo-classic
portico; the Lesser Collage, also known as Studies' House; the lordly
house of St. Thomas de Villanueva and its chapel; the Inquisition House;
the St. Dominic convent, established in 1517, where Francisco de Quevedo
died on on 8 September 1745; the palaces of the Marquesses of Melgarejo,
of the Marquesses of Camacho, of Manuel de la Burreda, of the Bustos and
of the Ballesteros; the headquarter of the Knights of Saint John, with a
magnificent portico from the 16th century etc. These historical
buildings keep several artworks of great quality.
St. Thomas of Villanueva (1486-1555), born in Fuenllana as Tomás García Martínez Castellano, took the name of the town where he grew and studied. He enrolled in 1508 at the University of Alcalá de Henares and was ordained priest in 1518 in Salamanca. Charles I appointed him Provincial Prior of Andalusia and Castile, and, subsequently, Bishop of Valencia, after he had refused the see of Granada.
St. Thomas was a talented preacher, who, according to Charles I, "could
stir stones". His sermons, blaming the social and public abuses of the
times, are among the masterpieces of the 16th century sacred orations,
especially the Sermón del amor de Dios. He expressed a highest
devotion for the Blessed Virgin, whom he compared to a burning bush that
never falls into ashes. He also wrote several mystic pieces, such as De
la lección, meditación, oración y contemplación.
St. Thomas of Villanueva was canonized on 1 November 1658 by Pope
Alexander VII. Francisco de Quevedo dedicated him the biography Epítome
a la historia de la vida ejemplar y gloriosa muerte del bienaventurado
fray Tomás de Villanueva.
The Augustinian Order named for him the prestigious Villanova University
(Pennsylvania), established in 1842, and the Universidad de Santo Tomás
de Villanueva in Havana (Cuba), relocated in 1961 in Miami Gardens, as
the St. Thomas University.
Villanueva de los Infantes is self-styled "the village of La Mancha"
("el lugar de la Mancha"), a straightforward reference to the famous,
ambiguous first words of "Don Quixote" ("En un lugar de la Mancha, de
cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme", "In a certain village of La Mancha,
the name of which I do not choose to remember"). Several villages of La
Mancha indeed claim to be "the village", first of them, Argamasilla de Alba. In 2005, for the celebration of the fifth centenary of the publication of the first part of the book, a multidisciplinary team
composed of nine experts in geography, history, philology, sociology,
computer science, and information science, all from Universidad
Complutense, established that Villanueva de los Infantes was the genuine
"village of La Mancha" (Francisco Parra Luna et al. El lugar de la
Mancha es... El Quijote como un sistema de distancias/tiempos. 2005.
Editorial Complutense).
A subsequent research proposed a geometrical solution based on
multiple-criteria decision analysis; this allowed to assign to 24
candidate "villages of La Mancha" a probability of being the genuine
site. Villanueva de los Infantes ranked first (P = 0.1744), but with a
probability only marginally higher than Fuenllana (P = 0.17022). The
probability assigned to Argamasilla was nil.
[F.J. Girón González-Torres & Y.M.J. Rios Insua. 2008. ¿De dónde era
probablemente D. Quijote? Un enfoque estadístico. Revista de la Real
Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales 102, 251-263]
Ivan Sache, 8 June 2019
The flag of Villanueva de los Infantes (photo, photo, photo, photo, photo), which does not seem to have been officially registered, is horizontally divided pinkish red-white with the municipal coat of arms in the center.
The coat of arms of Villanueva de los Infantes, of "immemorial use" and
seemingly not registered either, is "Argent a Cross of the Order of
Saint James quartered by the arms of Aragón, Castile, León, and Aragón.
The shield surmounted by a crown open."
[Ramón José Maldonado y Cocat. 1973. Heráldica municipal de la provincia de
Ciudad Real. Cuadernos de Estudios Manchegos 4, 84-109]
On the flag, the arms are placed on a golden-yellow cartouche.
Ivan Sache, 8 June 2019
