Logbook · 9 places

What to see and do in Babilafuente

What to see and do in Babilafuente (Las Villas, Salamanca): 9 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Activities · 2 Curiosities · 3 Historical milestones · 2 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Babilafuente

The waters of the Babilafuente spa 3.3 km

Towns near Babilafuente

What to see in Moríñigo 1.3 km · 5 places
What to see in Cordovilla 3.4 km · 7 places
What to see in Huerta 3.8 km · 9 places
What to see in Villoruela 4.3 km · 10 places
What to see in Villoria 4.7 km · 8 places
What to see in Encinas de Abajo 6 km · 4 places
What to see in San Morales 6.7 km · 8 places
What to see in Aldearrubia 6.9 km · 7 places

Spain › Castile and León › Salamanca › Las Villas › Babilafuente

What to see and do in Babilafuente

Babilafuente
Village
Babilafuente is a municipality in the comarca of Las Villas, in the province of Salamanca, with about 924 inhabitants. It is documented for the first time in May 1215, as Vaguilafointe, in the time of Alfonso IX of León; the form closest to its current name, Baguila Fuente, is already recorded in 1281. It has a spring of sodium bicarbonate and lithium mineral-medicinal waters, traditionally used against kidney, bile and bladder stones, marketed bottled under the Babilafuente brand; its use as a spa dates back to 1752. Today a bioethanol plant drives its economy.
The waters of the Babilafuente spa
Activity
The use of the thermal waters goes back to 1752, when the old Fuente del Caño sprang here. Its waters, calcium-sodium bicarbonate of weak mineralisation, are declared of public utility for their action on digestive and respiratory complaints.
The sale of the Vaguilafointe estate
Historical milestone
A document in the Salamanca cathedral archive records the sale that Sancha Gómez made to the dean and the chapter of the estate of Vaguilafointe, with oxen, grain, vineyards and pastures: it is the earliest known mention of the place, in May 1215, in the time of Alfonso IX of León.
The fire of the French retreat
Historical milestone
On leaving Salamanca in 1812, and weeks before the battle of Los Arapiles, the troops of General Marmont set fire to Babilafuente and the neighboring villages, burning the harvests and causing severe damage to the parish church.
The lordship lost by a comunero
Historical milestone
The town belonged to Rodrigo Maldonado and passed to his descendant Pedro Maldonado, executed for his part in the War of the Comunidades. In 1523 Carlos V sold the territory to Alonso de Acevedo y Zúñiga, and it became tied to the ducal house of Alba.
The hornazo of Lunes de Aguas
Food and drink
On the Monday after Easter Monday, Babilafuente celebrates the Lunes de Aguas by eating hornazo in the countryside: a thick pie filled with chorizo, loin, bacon and boiled egg, with which Lenten abstinence was broken from the sixteenth century onwards.
The bottled water of Babilafuente
Food and drink
The quality of the spring that supplies the spa allows its water, of weak mineralisation and mild taste, to be bottled and sold as table water, an uncommon use among the small municipalities of the Tormes riverbank.
The capital of the seven towns
Curiosity
A document of 1223 incorporated the settlement into the quarter of Valdevilloria and recognised its status as a town; local memory recalls it as head of seven other neighbouring settlements, all of them added to the county of Monterrey and later to the House of Alba.
The bioethanol plant among the wheat fields
Curiosity
In operation since 2006, the bioethanol plant installed in the municipal district turns the comarca's grain into biofuel and is one of the municipality's main economic drivers, an unusual industry among villages of a few hundred households.