Villa of Fafila, notes on the origin of a name

Although there are various material remains from the Neolithic (5,000 BC) in the municipal term, the oldest documented settlement within the current urban area is from the first Iron Age, on the site of the old church of San Martín. On the outskirts of the town, both to the east, in La Carrerina and El Escambrón, where there are various materials, both constructive and ceramic, from the late Roman period, and to the west, in the Santa Marta settlement where the Visigoth treasure was found, there are indications of the occupation of the town between the 4th and 8th centuries.

The first written citation that I have found of Villafáfila dates back to the year 936, near the Salina in a document from the Sahagún monastery, by which Alarigo and his wife Fradegundia, sell two salt mines in Lampreana, one of them in the Salina Grande – Lacuna Maiore – and cites as adjoining the terms of Abiza, Piniolo, Atanarico and Villafáfila:

“Iª pause ad Lacuna Maiore ad terminum de Abiza et de Pinniolo et de Villa de Fafila ...” ^{^[1]} .

In 954, in a donation made by a Mozarabic nobleman, Piloti Gebúldiz, of various estates to the monastery of San Martín de Valdepueblo, in Mayorga, it is already mentioned as a village with good houses:

“in Lampreana, in Villa fafila , palaces we obtain cum their hereditary” ^{^[2]} .

It is probable that the location of the early medieval village was closer to the Salina Grande than the contemporary village, which was probably organized as such a century later.

The etymology seems to correspond, as in many places in Tierra de Campos, to a common anthroponym from the 10th century, which would be the owner of a rustic villa that gradually became a village.

Other nearby towns may have a toponym referring to their former owner: Revellinos (Revelle), Otero de Seriego (Serico or Seriego), Villaveza (Abeza or Abiza), Villarigo (Erico or Erigo), Villarrín (Regine), etc.

Several characters named Fafila or Favila (sometimes written Fauila) as they are indistinctly related, appear in contemporary texts. The first of them documented acts at the end of the 9th century, during the reign of Alfonso III, and is possibly a nephew of the king, was called Fáfila Odoariz, and acts as a witness in a document of 886 of restoration of the diocese of Orense ^{^[3]} ; at the beginning of the 10th century in the court of Ordoño II we find another, Fafila Baroncelliz, a character related to Bishop Sisnando of Santiago whom we find confirming a donation to the cathedral of Santiago in 911 ^{^[4]} , or in the confirmation of a document from the Sahagun monastery in 921 ^{^[5]}; Count Fafila Olaliz and another different Fafila confirm various documents from the cathedral of León, from 927 to 991 [6] ; and many other characters with the same name appear in the 10th century, confirming documents from monasteries throughout the Iberian Peninsula:

- The Galicians are the ones that most often mention characters named like this: like Sobrado when in 927 several witnesses make reference to a grandfather called Fáfila and throughout the 10th century other homonyms ^{^[7]} ; from Celanova, or from the diocese of Mondoñedo (a confessor is cited in 951, and the widow and children of another Fáfila, who died before 974 ^{^[8]} ;

- Portuguese (as the Fafila ts in a document from the monastery of San Salvador de Moreira, dated 915),

- Catalans where Fafila with different variants is documented as an anthroponym in Catalonia between 846 and 989 in diverse monastic documentation [10] .

- Castilians, like one of the holy martyrs of the Cardeña monastery, who perished in the Burgos monastery in the 9th century, was the monk Fauila.

Therefore, from the medieval documentation published so far we can deduce that the name Fáfila was relatively common and extended throughout the peninsula at the beginning of the 10th century. Therefore, we cannot know who the Fáfila would own this town near the Salina. Grande, which could be contemporary with the 936 document, or already refer to a consolidated anthroponym that goes back to a previous character of that name.

Traditionally, a Visigothic origin has been proposed for Villafáfila, which could be confirmed by the archaeological finds of the treasure in 1921. Thus, Cesáreo Fernández Duro, in his Bibliographic-Biographical Collection of news regarding the province of Zamora , cites the foundation of Villafáfila in the year 435, according to Gregorio de Argaiz in “Ecclesiastical population of Spain and news of his first honors. Found in the writings of S. Gregorio bishop of Granada and in the Chroninon of Humberto, monk of S. Benito.1667-1669. Volume III p.332 ^{^[11]} ”. But this author is not characterized by the precision of his citations.

The relatively widespread hypothesis of relating the origin to King Fáfila or Favila, son of Don Pelayo, who lived and died in Asturias in the middle of the 8th century, would have no foundation.

However, the original origin of a town with this name could well have been related to a rustic possession of the Doge Favila, father of Pelayo according to the Oviedo version of the chronicle of Alfonso III, whose scope of action could have been carried out at the end of the century. VII in the province of Astorga ^{^[12]} . It seems that before 683 two new provinces or dukedoms had been created in the north of the peninsula, one in Asturias, with its capital in Astorga and another in Cantabria, with its capital in Amaya ^{^[13]} .

This character remains confused in the story. From what little we know about him, he lived between the 7th and 8th centuries. Medieval chronicles give him a royal origin, as the son of Chindasvinto and Reciberga, who would have had three sons: Recesvinto, who succeeded him as king, Teodofredo, who would be the father of don Rodrigo, and the doge Fáfila, father of don Pelayo. According to Sebastian of Salamanca:

"Tunc Pelagium sibi filium quondam Fafilani Ducis ex semine Regio in Principem elegerunt" Then they chose Pelayo, son of Duke Fafila, of royal blood, as prince.

He is cited as duke but it is not known with certainty if he exercised a territorial dukedom that could be that of Asturias, or was one of the doges that integrated into the royal curia or Palatium, who accompanied and advised the Visigoth king.

At the beginning of the 8th century, Duke Fáfila was sent by King Égica (687-702) from Toledo to see his son Witiza (700-710) who was associated with the throne and lived in Tuy (700-702). There was an incident between Witiza and Fáfila, apparently because of his wife, who suffered a blow to the head from which she died.

“Fafillam Witiza, occasionem uxoris, fuste in capitis vulneravit, ex quo vulnere mortuus fuit juxta urbicam” (For a reason caused by his wife [or another woman], he hit his head with a cane [Vitiza a Favila], which later caused his death). Lucas de Tuy says “Witiza uxoris instigante” .

After the incident, Witiza banished Pelayo from Toledo, who would have returned during the reign of Rodrigo, of whom he is supposed to be a cousin. Some writers of historical treatises from the 17th century affirm that Fáfila's wife was his niece, Doña Luz.

Lhe hypothesis that the Duchy of Fáfila was exercised over the province of Asturias, with its capital in Astorga, can be deduced from the fact documented in the chronicles that Pelayo took refuge in Asturias when he was expelled from Toledo by Witiza, since his father would have Established proto-feudal relations of dependencies and interests, which would serve as protection and shelter for his son. In support of this theory is the evident ascendancy of Pelayo over the Asturians and more specifically (it is a testimony of the greatest historical importance) the land possessions that we know of in Tiñana, by the will of King Alfonso the Great, since it was frequent possession of land properties in the territory of exercise of the dukedom (the same would serve to support the possession of a villa in Villafáfila,

A new light is also shed on Munuza's motivations for marrying Pelayo's sister, as C. Rotense recounts. It would be the way to relate to the successor of a legitimate power in the province.”

In recent years, an attempt has been made to give a new etymological significance by relating the name of Villafáfila to the "favilla salis" as the Romans called the finest salt, "which would end up lending its name to these humid places in all probability" ^{^[14]} .

https://historiasdevillafafila.blogspot.com/2014/05/villa-de-fafila-apuntes-sobre-el-origen.html

All text, photographs, transcription and montage, the rights belong to their authors, any type of use is prohibited without authorization.

[1] Mínguez, 1976: doc. 36.

[2] Rodríguez Fernández, 1982: Doc. 20.

[3] Farm, 1997.

[4] Lucas, 1995.

[5] Minguez, 1976.

[6] Saez, 1987; Ruiz Asensio, 1987.

[7] The certales, 1976 I: doc. 24, 56, 58, 131.

[8] Medieval diplomatic collection of the Archivo da Catedral de Mondoñedo.

[9] Farm 1997.

[10] Repertori d´antropónimcs catalans (RAC) Jordi Bolós and Josep Moran Barcelona 1994.

[11] 435." Fafila Vrbs Vaceorum in margini fluuii Pisorgii inundatur ": Fafila city of Tierra de Campos, on the banks of the Pisuerga flooded.

Today there is no news of such a city on the banks of the Pisuerga, or it was flooded by chance, that they never built it again, or it has changed its name. And what I think is more certain is that, as he wrote in Portugal, he made a mistake in the name of the river, or he spoke for the greater, because the Pisuerga is the noblest river in Campos; because the place of Villa Fasila (of whom he is perhaps speaking) is near Benavente on the banks of the Esla river, and this would be the one flooded”

[12] Frez Island, A. 1995.

[13] Luis A. García Moreno. History of Visigothic Spain. Madrid 1989.

[14] Delibes, 1993: 36.