The Treviño Enclave in northern Spain is part of the territory of the province of Burgos, but is completely surrounded by the territory of the Basque Country province of Álava. Thus, it is an enclave of the Basque Country and an exclave of Castile and León. It consists of two municipalities—Condado de Treviño and La Puebla de Arganzón—and is part of the legal district of Miranda de Ebro in the province of Burgos. The enclave consists of the municipalities of Condado de Treviño, with an area of and a 2009 population of 1,432, giving it a population density of and La Puebla de Arganzón, with an area of and a 2009 population of 529, giving it a population density of. This gives the enclave as a whole an area of and a 2009 population of 1,961, for a population density of.
History
La Puebla de Arganzón obtained its founding fueros from Sancho VI of Navarre in 1191. The original fuero of Condado de Treviño is lost, but is believed to have been granted by the same king in 1161. In 1200, it was conquered by Alfonso VIII of Castile. After Castile conquered Álava, most of the region was left under the relatively egalitarian fueros typical of the Basque Country. Treviño was not. First a royal seigneury, Treviño de Uda and its outlying villages were granted in 1366 to the noble. In 1453 Diego Gómez Manrique de Lara y Castilla became a count, hence the Condado de Treviño. His son became in 1482, a title that continues in the family down to the present day. In the 16th century these Counts of Treviño, Dukes de Nájera since 1593, built a palace at Treviño, which is now the ayuntamiento of the municipality. As a result, Treviño remained closely tied to Castile. The enclave of Treviño was one of the few enclaves preserved in the 1833 territorial division of Spain, an island of Old Castile in the midst of Álava. That arrangement of the territory of Spain remains largely in effect today, although the province of Burgos is now part of Castile-León rather than the historic region of Old Castile.
The status of the enclave of Treviño has long been the subject of bitter contention between the autonomous government of Castile and León and the governments of the Basque Country, especially the provincial government of Álava. The drive to integrate the enclave into Álava extends to nearly the whole political spectrum in Álava, such as the regional branch of the right-of-center PP, who differ with their co-partisans in Burgos on the matter. Inmaculada Ranedo of the PP, the mayor of Condado de Treviño, as of July 2008 leant toward at least cooperation with Álava, but she chose to let the governments at higher levels sort out the issues linked to its formal status. The inhabitants of the enclave receive many of their services in Vitoria-Gasteiz, but they pay tax to the Spanish central tax office, and not to the autonomous Basque one, at least since 1833. During the last 100 years of litigation, the population in the enclave has unequivocally inclined towards the annexation of Treviño to Álava, as expressed by vote or as demanded by its municipal institutions. In 1940, just after the start of the Francoist regime, a plebiscite in the enclave, conducted by the Civil Government of Burgos, showed 98% support for the integration of Treviño into Álava, however that was not acted upon. The last 1998 popular vote supported a referendum on the issue, but so far the regional council of Castile and León has repeatedly rejected local claims.
Language
Many of the local place names in the enclave are of Basque origin, especially in the central and eastern parts. The Basque language is supposed to have been spoken in the enclave up to the late 18th century. As late as 1810, a French civil servant, Eugène Coquebert de Montbret, pinpointed La Puebla as the southernmost Basque speaking town in Álava on a map showing Basque language boundaries. There is no formal recognition of Basque. An ikastola, Argantzon Ikastola, was created in La Puebla in 2003. The main Basque education journal claims an enrollment of children originating from the following locations: Tuyo, Grandival, Añastro, Burgeta, Pangua, Miranda, Araico, San Esteban, and Vitoria, all located in Treviño or surrounding areas. At any rate, local councils have agreed to promote Basque in their towns. According to a 2012 linguistic study 22% of the population can speak Basque, and another 17% understands the language. Basque is more prevalent among younger people, as 65% of those under 16 are bilingual.
