Mingorría is a municipality located in the

province of Ávila A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. According to the 2004

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 ...

( INE), the municipality has a population of 466 inhabitants. The origin of Mingorría is quite obscure; its names has, or it seems to have, some Basque roots: from Mendigorría, red hill in

Basque language Basque ( ; ) is a language spoken by Basques and other residents of the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country, a region that straddles the westernmost Pyrenees in adjacent parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. Basque ...

, but there are not definitive signs of that origin. Landscape of Mingorría shows granite blocks and evergreen oaks in an open field. Climate is typically interior Mediterranean with cold winters (negative temperatures are very common), warm summers, and a very dry atmosphere. As in other areas of

this place has lost its population since the 1960s, when rural life started to decline in

mainland Spain Peninsular Spain is the part of the territory of Spain located within the Iberian Peninsula, thus excluding other parts of Spain: the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, and several islets and crags off the coast of Morocco kno ...

. Farming was a part of traditional economy, but stonework was the most prevalent activity until the early 1890s. This sector emerged after the opening of railway in 1870 allowing to export granite

stonework Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using rock (geology), stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with Mortar (masonry), mortar ...

to other regions.

Gallery

Image:mingorria33.jpg, Image:mingorria0520.jpg, Image:mingorria34.jpg, Image:mingorria39.jpg,

References

Municipalities in the Province of Ávila {{Ávila-geo-stub