Villaviciosa de Odón

Villaviciosa de Odón
Municipality

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Coat of arms

Location of Villaviciosa de Odón
Villaviciosa de Odón

Location in Spain

Coordinates: 40°21′30″N 3°54′12″W / 40.35833°N 3.90333°W / 40.35833; -3.90333Coordinates: 40°21′30″N 3°54′12″W / 40.35833°N 3.90333°W / 40.35833; -3.90333
Country  Spain
Autonomous community  Madrid
Province Madrid
Comarca Madrid metropolitan area
Founded 18th century
Government
 • Mayor Jose Javier Sanz (Temporary) (PP)
Area
 • Total 68.17 km2 (26.32 sq mi)
Elevation 650 m (2,130 ft)
Population (2009)
 • Total 26,475
 • Density 390/km2 (1,000/sq mi)
Demonym(s) Villaodonense
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 28670-28679
Official language(s) Spanish
Website Official website

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 Universidad Europea de Madrid are located within the municipality.

Villaviciosa's quiet lifestyle and its proximity to Madrid propitiated rapid and extensive development during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Because of its proximity to the Universidad Europea de Madrid, it has become a university town, with well-developed residential area and amenities for students. The town contains the Castle of Villaviciosa de Odón.

History

The first news of population formed in the vicinity of Villaviciosa are of the Visigoth era as demonstrates the necropolis found when the splitting of the M-501 road from Villaviciosa until Navas del Rey. We also know that there was a population nucleus on the land now occupied by Villaviciosa; it was the old Calatalifa, this name comes from the Arabic قلعة الخليفة Qal`at al-Khalifa or Castillo del Califa, populated quoted by Ibn Hayyan chronicler in 939, but probably its foundation would habe been earlier.

Like many other towns in the Community of Madrid, Calatalifa was occupied by the Castilian troops during the Reconquista, the Christian advance, after conquering Mayrit (Madrid), ended with the conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI. With people of three cultures, Christians, Arabs and Jews, was subsisting and disappeared towards the end of the thirteenth century.

The population reappears in the mid-fifteenth century already with the name of Odón, since a handwritten document dated in 1459 which attests to a purchase-sale of land and is preserved in the Town Hall serves as a reliable source.

Is already in the early eighteenth century when Villaviciosa name appears on official documents, and even alternate the two names, as we can see in a decree of Felipe V that makes the area Real Bosque: "He venido en declarar que el nuevo Bosque de la villa de Odón o Villaviciosa, que es propio del Ynfante don Felipe, mi hijo, y sus límites, con sus aumentos o extensiones que en adelante tuviere, son y han de ser Bosque Real, con todos sus privilegios y libertades".

By 1801, the neighbouring village of Sacedón de Canales is completely depopulated or even say that the few people who already lived in the extinct town moved to Villaviciosa.It is from this moment that Villaviciosa annexes the territory of the lost town of Sacedón de Canales.

See also


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