Villa

:For the historical general, see Pancho Villa.

Post-Roman villas

In post-Roman times a villa referred to a self-sufficient, usually fortified Italian or Gallo-Roman farmstead. It was economically as self-sufficient as a village and its inhabitants, who might be legally tied to it as serfs were villeins. The Merovingian Franks inherited the concept, but the later French term was basti or bastide.

Related Topics:
Gallo-Roman - Serfs

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In Spain, a villa is a town with a charter (fuero) of lesser importance than a ciudad ("city").

Related Topics:
Charter - Fuero

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Later evolution has made the distinction between villas and ciudades a purely honorific one.

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Madrid is the Villa y Corte, but the much smaller Ciudad Real was declared ciudad by the Spanish crown.

Related Topics:
Madrid - Corte - Ciudad Real

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Villa (or its cognates) is part of many Spanish placenames, like Vila Real and Villadiego.

Related Topics:
Vila Real - Villadiego

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When it is associated to a person name, it was probably used in the original sense of a country estate rather than a chartered town.

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