Don Benito () is a Spanish town and municipality in the

province of Badajoz The province of Badajoz ( ; ) is a province of western Spain located in the autonomous community of Extremadura. It was formed in 1833. It is bordered by the provinces of Cáceres in the north, Toledo, Ciudad Real in the east, Córdoba in ...

Extremadura Extremadura ( ; ; ; ; Fala language, Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is a landlocked autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, Spain, Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central- ...

, near the left bank of the river

Guadiana The Guadiana River ( , , , ) is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from la Mancha and the e ...

. According to the 2014

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, the municipality has a population of 37,011.

History

Don Benito dates from the 15th century, when it was founded by refugees from Don Llorente, who deserted their own town due to the danger of floods from the Guadiana. On 28 March 1809, the 9 km separating Don Benito from

Medellín Medellín ( ; or ), officially the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of Medellín (), is the List of cities in Colombia, second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia Departme ...

was the site of a major French victory against Spanish troops during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

. By 2021, the municipal government of Don Benito worked alongside that of

Villanueva de la Serena Villanueva de la Serena () is a city in the Province of Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain. It has a population of 26,111 (2010) and forms part of a larger urban area with the neighbouring town of Don Benito. History Founded in the thirteenth century ...

to fuse the two neighbouring municipalities into a single one, paving the way for a 2022 non-binding consultation. On 8 November 2021, the

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

sanctioned the celebration of the consultation, to be held on 20 February 2022. Both municipalities approved the merging, in the case of Don Benito by a whisker (a 66.2% of yes votes relative to the 66.0% threshold set in advance).

Demographics

Colors= id:a value:gray(0.9) id:b value:gray(0.7) id:c value:rgb(1,1,1) id:d value:rgb(0.6,0.7,0.8) ImageSize = width:700 height:350 PlotArea = left:50 bottom:30 top:30 right:30 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:40000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:b increment:10000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:a increment:1000 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:c BarData= bar:1842 text:1842 bar:1857 text:1857 bar:1877 text:1877 bar:1887 text:1887 bar:1900 text:1900 bar:1910 text:1910 bar:1920 text:1920 bar:1930 text:1930 bar:1940 text:1940 bar:1950 text:1950 bar:1960 text:1960 bar:1970 text:1970 bar:1981 text:1981 bar:1991 text:1991 bar:2001 text:2001 bar:2011 text:2011 bar:2012 text:2012 bar:2014 text:2014 PlotData= color:d width:20 align:left bar:1842 from:0 till: 14610 bar:1857 from:0 till: 14836 bar:1877 from:0 till: 15003 bar:1887 from:0 till: 16287 bar:1900 from:0 till: 16656 bar:1910 from:0 till: 19212 bar:1920 from:0 till: 21059 bar:1930 from:0 till: 21196 bar:1940 from:0 till: 21495 bar:1950 from:0 till: 22840 bar:1960 from:0 till: 25566 bar:1970 from:0 till: 26718 bar:1981 from:0 till: 28418 bar:1991 from:0 till: 28879 bar:2001 from:0 till: 31538 bar:2011 from:0 till: 36660 bar:2012 from:0 till: 37048 bar:2014 from:0 till: 37011 PlotData= bar:1842 at: 14610 fontsize:s text: 14,610 shift:(-10,5) bar:1857 at: 14836 fontsize:s text: 14,836 shift:(-10,5) bar:1877 at: 15003 fontsize:s text: 15 003 shift:(-10,5) bar:1887 at: 16287 fontsize:s text: 16,287 shift:(-10,5) bar:1900 at: 16656 fontsize:s text: 16,656 shift:(-15,5) bar:1910 at: 19212 fontsize:s text: 19,212 shift:(-15,5) bar:1920 at: 21059 fontsize:s text: 21,059 shift:(-15,5) bar:1930 at: 21196 fontsize:s text: 21,196 shift:(-15,5) bar:1940 at: 21495 fontsize:s text: 21,495 shift:(-15,5) bar:1950 at: 22840 fontsize:s text: 22,840 shift:(-15,5) bar:1960 at: 25566 fontsize:s text: 25,566 shift:(-15,5) bar:1970 at: 26718 fontsize:s text: 26,718 shift:(-15,5) bar:1981 at: 28418 fontsize:s text: 28,418 shift:(-15,5) bar:1991 at: 28879 fontsize:s text: 28,879 shift:(-15,5) bar:2001 at: 31538 fontsize:s text: 31,538 shift:(-15,5) bar:2011 at: 36660 fontsize:s text: 36,660 shift:(-15,5) bar:2012 at: 37048 fontsize:s text: 37,048 shift:(-15,5) bar:2014 at: 37011 fontsize:s text: 37,011 shift:(-15,5)

Geography

Don Benito has 37,048 inhabitants, and is part of an urban area with

(26,071 inhabitants) 5 km away. The municipality is composed by the town of Don Benito and seven villages:

Climate

Don Benito has a hot summer mediterranean climate (

Köppen classification Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Csa''), bordering on a cold semi-arid climate (''BSk''). The winters are mild, although temperatures very occasionally drop below during the coldest nights of the year. Summers are hot to very hot and temperatures often exceed and occasionally exceed . Precipitation is moderately scarce throughout the year, averaging annually. Autumn is the season with the most rainfall, while the summers are dry.

Transport

The town is served by a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

on the

Ciudad Real Ciudad Real (, ) is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region. It was founded as Villa Real in 1255 as a ro ...

Badajoz Badajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portugal, Portuguese Portugal–Spain border, border, on the left bank of the river ...

railway, part of an international line that links

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

with

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. It has been interested, along with the nearby

, by a project of a

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

way, not yet finalized."The project of the Don Benito-Villanueva tramway will be taken by the regional board"
'' Hoy'', 12-2-2008 The town is also the southern terminus of the EXA2 motorway from Miajadas.

Famous residents

* Florinda Chico (1926-2011), actress * Jesús Gil Manzano (b. 1984), referee * Juanma Gómez (b. 1981), footballer * Pedro Porro (b. 1999), footballer

Twin towns

* Fquih Ben Salah, Morocco

References

External links

Don Benito official website

{{Authority control Municipalities in the Province of Badajoz