Boadilla del Monte explained

Boadilla del Monte
Settlement Type:Municipality
Pushpin Map:Spain Community of Madrid#Spain
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in the Community of Madrid##Location in Spain
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Type1:Autonomous community
Subdivision Name1:Madrid
Subdivision Type2:Province
Subdivision Name2:Madrid
Subdivision Type3:Comarca
Subdivision Name3:Madrid metropolitan area
Coordinates:40.4069°N -3.875°W
Elevation M:689
Area Total Km2:47.24
Population Demonym:Boadillano
Population Density Km2:auto
Blank Name Sec1:Official language(s)
Timezone:CET
Utc Offset:+1
Timezone Dst:CEST
Utc Offset Dst:+2
Postal Code Type:Postal code
Postal Code:28660
Area Code Type:Dialing code
Leader Title:Alcalde
Leader Name:Javier Úbeda Liébana (2020)
Leader Party:PP

Boadilla del Monte (pronounced as /es/) is a Spanish town and municipality located in the west of the Community of Madrid, inside its metropolitan area. It has the second highest level of income per capita in all of the country of Spain.[1] In 2017, it had a population of 51,463.[2]

Symbols

The escutcheon representing the municipality was approved by Real Decreto on October 6, 1977:

The textual description of the flag, approved with an agreement on February 22, 2007, is the following:

History

The placename could come from the Arabic "Boadil-la", showing a Saracen domain of the territory. Another option is that the name comes from "boa", word that in the 13th century meant "rush-like plant".

In the 15th century, the Catholic Monarchs gave Don. Andrés Cabrera and his wife, Doña Beatriz de Boadilla, the noble rank of Count and Countess of Chinchón, being Boadilla part of their territory. The "Señorío de Boadilla del Monte" had owners such as the Count of Toreno and the Marquess of Mirabal. Doña Josefa de Mirabal, 3rd Marchioness of Mirabal, had the permission of Castilla's Council to sell this señorío to the Infante Don Luis, who ordered Ventura Rodriguez, a neoclassic architect, to restyle the old Palace of the Two Towers.

In the middle of the 19th century, Boadilla added to its municipal limits the old municipality of Romanillos, with only 30 inhabitants.[3]

The town –at that time little more than a village– was the scene of a fierce battle in December 1936 in which the International Brigades (including Winston Churchill's nephew, Esmond Romilly) fought to defend Madrid against Franco's insurgent army. The battle lasted three days, during which most of Romilly's British comrades were killed.[4]

Geography

Location

The municipality is located at an altitude of 682 MSL, in a terrain crossed by creeks, as well as the Guadarrama river. In it we can find big areas of holm oaks and pine trees. Although it has a varied topography, the slope is smooth, generally S.W. oriented.

The municipality is located to the west of Madrid, and shares borders with Majadahonda to the north, Villaviciosa de Odón and Alcorcón to the south, Pozuelo de Alarcón to the east, and Villanueva de la Cañada and Brunete to the west.

Soil

Almost all municipality's terrain is lower Miocene soil, classified inside the "samartiense". It is composed of limestone, marl and gypsum.

Climate

The main winds come from the S.W., and the climate is temperate: the average temperature in January (the coldest month) is 5 °C; and in July (the hottest month), it is 24,1 °C.

Hydrography

Flora

Holm oaks, pine trees, oaks, ash trees...

Demography

According to the INE's "Padrón Municipal para 2017", the municipality, with an area of 47,20km2, is home to 51.463 inhabitants, with a density of 1090,32 inhabitants per km2.

Urbanism

Apart from the historical town, between the 60s and the 70s residential areas started to develop independently, building single family houses with big plots.

This way, part of Boadilla's forest was bought to build the Montepríncipe and Monte de las Encinas residential complexes. At the same time, in the western part of the municipality, other complexes would develop: Las Lomas, Olivar de Mirabal, Parque Boadilla, Bonanza... Recently, in this area we can find Pino Centinela, Valdecabañas and Valdepastores.

Although this residential complexes were originally thought to be sold to high purchasing power families, the cheap price of land made them accessible to a big variety of people who came from Madrid, using it as a second home.

However, with Madrid's metropolitan area growing, this complexes ended up as luxury and exclusive residential areas, similar to near ones in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Majadahonda, Las Rozas or Villaviciosa de Odón. All them are known as "Histotic Residential Complexes".

In the 80s, Boadilla's historical town grew to the west, appearing what is now known as "Residencial de las Eras". With a higher density than the "Historic Residential Complexes", homes are mainly single family terraced houses organized around the Zoco de Boadilla mall.

Other information

Bibliografía

Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at ; see its history for attribution.

External links

Notes and References

  1. País, El (May 29th, 2019). «Fotos: Los 10 municipios más ricos de España, en imágenes». El País. ISSN 1134-6582. Last seen, April 15th, 2020.
  2. http://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=2881 Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero
  3. http://www.boadilla.com/pages/historia.htm Boadilla del Monte, reseña histórica
  4. Boadilla by Esmond Romilly, first published 1937, republished by The Clapton Press, 2018; ISBN 978-1-9996543-0-6