Valbuena de la Encomienda is a locality and ''

minor local entity In some communities of Spain, minor local entity () is a territorial entity of scope smaller than municipality defined and regulated by the regional governments. Some examples are ''caseríos, parroquias, aldeas, barrios, anteiglesias, concejos, ...

'' located in the municipality of

Villagatón Villagatón is a municipality located in the León (province), province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census (Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain), INE), the municipality has a population of 734 inhabitants. Vill ...

, in León province,

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 ...

. Its true full name is Valbuena de la Encomienda del Santo Hospital de San Juan de Jerusalem, which points to its origin as the domain of the Knights Hospitallers based a few kilometers away, in the Cueto de San Bartolo Monastery, in Villameca. This village, currently made up of about a dozen inhabited houses, was in its time an important industrial hub, where the mills and ironworks of the region were concentrated, probably under the protection of the adjacent privileges of being a monastic domain. Its territory has been exploited since immemorial time and there are still traces of iron, and even gold, mines. Its ferruginous, sulphurous and magnesium waters were also famous for being beneficial for a large number of conditions, which made the village be placed among the best known for this subject within the province of Leon. Its small church, built by the military order, still preserves the old medieval flavor.

Geography

Valbuena de la Encomienda is located 85 km west of

León, Spain León (; ) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the province of León, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León, in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. It has a population of 124,303 (2019), ...

References

Populated places in the Province of León {{León-geo-stub