Boadilla del Monte () is a Spanish town and municipality located in the west of the
Community of Madrid
The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...
, inside its metropolitan area. It has the second highest level of income per capita in all of the country of Spain. In 2017, it had a population of 51,463.
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.
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
The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...
(including
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
'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.
[''Boadilla'' by Esmond Romilly, first published 1937, republished by ]The Clapton Press
The Clapton Press is an independent publisher based in London E5, established in 2018.
Memories of Spain
Although its publication list is not restricted to any particular theme, The Clapton Press has a strong interest in Spain and Latin America. ...
, 2018; ISBN 978-1-9996543-0-6
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
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 ...
, and shares borders with
Majadahonda
Majadahonda () is a municipality in Spain, situated northwest of Madrid, in the Community of Madrid.
It lies alongside the motorway A6 Madrid- A Coruña.
The Puerta de Hierro university (public) hospital was relocated to Majadahonda from the ...
to the north,
Villaviciosa de Odón
Villaviciosa de Odón () is a municipality in the western zone of the Community of Madrid in Spain. The town is located 15 km west of Madrid's city center, in the western zone of the metro area. The Spanish Air Force Museum and the Univers ...
and
Alcorcón
Alcorcón () is a city and municipality of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. As of 2022, it had a population of 170,296.
Geography
The municipality, largely flat, lies at an average altitude of 711 metres above sea level, with the hi ...
to the south,
Pozuelo de Alarcón
Pozuelo de Alarcón () is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Bordering the Moncloa-Aravaca district of Madrid proper to its west, Pozuelo de Alarcón is surrounded by large Mediterranean pine-tree forests: the Casa de Campo, the M ...
to the east, and
Villanueva de la Cañada and
Brunete
Brunete () is a town located on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain, with a population of 10,730 people.
History
There was no military garrison in Brunete and there was no rebel attempt to seize the city during the coup of July 1936. Brunete remai ...
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
* Average annual temperature: 13,6 °C
* Average annual precipitation: 500,5 m³ between March and December.
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
* Rivers:
Guadarrama
Guadarrama is a town and municipality in the Cuenca del Guadarrama comarca, in the Community of Madrid, Spain.
Its population is 17,063 according to the Continuous Register of 2023; the population swells to approximately 60,000 in summer. In th ...
,
Aulencia.
* Creeks: Calabozo, Las Pueblas, Valenoso, Prado Grande, Los Pastores, Los Mojuelos.
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
* The registered office of
Santander Bank
Santander Bank, N. A. () is an American bank operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Spanish Santander Group. It is based in Boston and its principal market is the northeastern United States. It has $57.5 billion in deposits, operates abou ...
is based there.
*
Convent of las Madres Carmelitas
Gallery
File:boadilla1.JPG, Sector Siglo XXI and the tram
File:boadilla2.JPG, Infante Don Luis Street
File:boadilla3.JPG, Typical street -Pio Baroja
File:boadilla5.JPG, Skateboard court
File:boadilla6.JPG, Avenida Condesa De Chinchon
File:boadilla7.JPG, The tram
File:boadilla8.JPG, The tram station
References
Bibliografía
*
Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at
:es:Boadilla del Monte; see its history for attribution.
External links
Official website
Local magazine
City Information website on city
Local Press at Boadilla > Local Press
{{authority control
Municipalities in the Community of Madrid