Enclave of Treviño

The Enclave of Treviño (Spanish: Enclave de Treviño) in northern Spain is part of the territory of the province of Burgos (part of Castile and León), but is completely surrounded by the territory of the Basque province of Álava.^[1] It consists of two municipalities—Condado de Treviño and La Puebla de Arganzón^[1]—and is part of the legal district (partido judicial) of Miranda de Ebro in the province of Burgos.^[2] Properly speaking, it is both an exclave (lacking geographic connection to the rest of Burgos) and an enclave (surrounded by Álava).

The enclave consists of the municipalities of Condado de Treviño, with an area of 260.71 square kilometres (100.66 sq mi) and a 2009 population of 1,432, giving it a population density of 5.49 per square kilometre (14.2 /sq mi) and La Puebla de Arganzón, with an area of 18.87 square kilometres (7.29 sq mi) and a 2009 population of 529, giving it a population density of 28.03 per square kilometre (72.6 /sq mi).^[3] This gives the enclave as a whole an area of 279.58 square kilometres (107.95 sq mi) and a 2009 population of 1,961, for a population density of 6.77 per square kilometre (17.5 /sq mi).^[4]

History

La Puebla de Arganzón obtained its founding fueros from Sancho VI of Navarre ("Sancho el Sabio", "Sancho the Wise") in 1191.^[1] The original fuero of Condado de Treviño is lost, but is believed to have been granted by the same king in 1161.^[5] In 1200 it was conquered by Alfonso VIII of Castile.^[6]

After Castile conquered Álava, most of the region was left under the relatively egalitarian fueros typical of the Basque Country. Treviño was not. First a royal seigneury, Treviño de Uda and its outlying villages were granted in 1366 to the noble Manrique family.^[7] In 1453 Gómez Manrique became a count, hence the Condado [County] de Treviño.^[7] His son Pedro Manrique de Lara became Duke of Nájera in 1482, a title that continues in the family down to the present day.^[8] In the 16th century these Counts of Treviño, Dukes de Nájera since 1593, would build a palace at Treviño, which is now the ayuntamiento (town hall) of the municipality.^[7]

As a result, Treviño remained closely tied to Castile. The enclave of Treviño was one of the few enclaves preserved in the 1833 territorial division of Spain, an island of Old Castile in the midst of Álava. That arrangement of the territory of Spain remains largely in effect today,^[9] although the province of Burgos is now part of Castile-León rather than the historic region of Old Castile.

Current status of the enclave

The status of the enclave of Treviño has long been the subject of bitter contention between the autonomous government of Castile and León and the governments of the Basque Country, especially the provincial government of Álava.^[10] Present-day Basque nationalists wish to integrate the enclave into Álava,^[10] while all significant parties in the province of Burgos defend the burgalesidad ("Burgaleseness") of the enclave. The impulse to integrate the enclave into Álava extends even to non-nationalist parties in Álava, such as the regional branch of the right-of-center PP, who differ with their co-partisans in Burgos on the matter.^[11] Inmaculada Ranedo of the PP, the mayor of Condado de Treviño, as of July 2008 leans toward at least cooperation with Álava, but has chosen to let the governments at higher levels sort out the issues of formal status.^[11]

In 1940, just after the start of the Franco regime, a plebiscite in the enclave, conducted by the Civil Government of Burgos showed 98 percent support for the integration of Treviño into Álava. However, that was not acted upon,^[12] and the rise of Basque nationalism during the Franco years and afterward has left many in the enclave more inclined to keep their Burgalese identity.

In 1979, deputies (congressmen) Xavier Arzalluz of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and José María Bandrés of Euskadiko Ezkerra, affirmed that Article 8 of the then-new Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country was intended to integrate Treviño into Álava and the similar enclave of Villaverde de Trucíos (Cantabria) into Biscay.^[12] Nonetheless, Treviño remained part of the province of Burgos. The Statute of Autonomy of Castile and León (which, like all Statutes of Autonomy in Spain was approved as Organic Law by the Cortes Generales ^[13]) requires that for Treviño to be incorporated into Álava would require the consent of the province of Burgos and the autonomous community of Castile and León.^[14] In the 1980s, the government and parliament of the Basque Country brought a case challenging the constitutionality of that provision, but in 1986 it was rejected by the Constitutional Court of Spain.^[14]

There is no formal recognition of Basque (Basque: Euskara) (official in all of Alava and spoken in a few northern towns of that province, but not in Treviño or in most of Alava) as a language of the autonomous community.^[15] This contrasts to the status of Galician and Leonese, recognized in the Castilian-Leonese Statute of Autonomy as minority languages in Castile and León, but one has to take into account that Basque is not a native language in the Enclave itself. However, the local councils have agreed to promote the Basque language in the towns.^[15]

Notes

This article incorporates information from the revision as of 2010-01-04 of the equivalent article on the Spanish Wikipedia.