Regional Feast Day /Holiday

Autonomous region public holiday

The revolt, that ended in Villalar, started in Toledo. The whole scenario was a wide area: Tordesillas, Torrelobatón, Valladolid, Zamora, Salamanca, Toro, Segovia, Medina del Campo, Medina de Rioseco, Ávila... and Villalar. The movement takes place in the Castilian urban areas. The north of Spain, not very developed, and the south, controlled by the high nobility, didn't really take part.

Villalar monolith

The representatives of the revolted cities gathered in Ávila, where they created the "Junta Santa", and from there they sent the king a memorial with their complaints. Charles I managed to won the affection of many nobles, and in Villalar, the 23rd April 1521, defeated the commoners followers, that were mainly cities craftsmen and countryside peasants. The imperial cavalry killed nearly 500 people and took the main captains that had given rise to the revolt prisoners. Those captains were: Juan de Padilla, from Toledo; Juan Bravo, from Segovia, and Francisco Maldonado, from Salamanca. After a summary trial the next day, once they had assumed their responsibilities, they were killed.

The Castilla y León regional Government, in 1986, decided to establish the 23rd of April as the "Region's Day", due to the festive nature that the Villalar commemoration had been taking on.

The legislative text is in charge of reminding the traditional aspirations of the commemoration, that wanted that day to be "at the same time a tribute to the ancestors and a pledge before those that continue to have interest in improving the life quality of Castilla y León people (...)". That date, says the law, "has been kept in the collective memory of those that, aware of the significance that it had for its development determination, has always claimed it as a hopeful date for the recovery of its freedom and self-government in the solidarity and unity of Spain".