Boal

Boal
Bual

Municipality

Coat of arms

Boal

Location in Spain

Coordinates: 43°25′43″N 6°49′6″W / 43.42861°N 6.81833°WCoordinates: 43°25′43″N 6°49′6″W / 43.42861°N 6.81833°W

Country

Spain

Asturias

Boal

Government

• Alcalde

José Antonio Barrientos (PSOE)

Area

• Total

120.28 km² (46.44 sq mi)

Highest elevation

1,201 m (3,940 ft)

Population

• Total

1,632

• Density

14/km² (35/sq mi)

Demonym(s)

boalés / boalesa

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

Postal code

33720

Website

Official website

Boal (Galician-Asturian: Bual) is a municipality, a civil parish and a town in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias (Spain). It borders north with El Franco and Coaña, south with Illano, west with Castropol and east with Villayón.

The main way of access to the municipality is the regional road AS-12, which connects Navia with Grandas de Salime. The whole municipality has a population of 1,632 inhabitants, whereas there are about 496 inhabitants in the capital town.

Etymologically, it is usually considered that "Boal" comes either from the Indo-european languages, *bod- (stream, ditch), or from the Latin, bove or *bovale (ox). Although some authors believe that "Boal" could be understood as the expression of an old anthroponym or person name, Bovali (iler) or Baudiliu (adducing the form Baudali), it is common to consider its original meaning either as "terreno frecuentado y apropiado para el pasto del ganado vacuno" ("land frequented and appropriate for the grazing of cattle") or as "corral de bueyes o dehesa boyal" ("corral for oxen or ox pasture"). In fact, Corominas mentions in Aragonese boalage, boalar, "dehesa boyal" ("ox pasture") as derivatives of boal, which would be at the same time a variant of boyal, "perteneciente al buey o al ganado vacuno" ("belonging to ox or to cattle") .

There still remain traces proving the existence of settlements in this municipality in a time prior to the arrival of Romans. Although it is supposed that there were already populated enclaves in the area during the Paleolithic, there are no remains of this time, so such a supposition could not be demonstrated. Nevertheless, remains of the Neolithic have reached up to the present day. For example, several burial mounds were found in the mountain range of Penouta in what is one of the vastest burial mound fields in the whole Asturias, with 72 catalogued tombs. Likewise, dolmens near Llaviada (nowadays disappeared) are supposed to date from this time, together with the oscillating granitic mass known as Penedo Aballón (located near Penouta, and knocked down in 2004, probably by a few vandals).

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Wikipedia