Villa del Río is the first of the province’s town that greets visitors entering Andalusia from Madrid. Villa del Río marks the gateway into Córdoba: it is the first of the province’s town that greets visitors entering Andalusia from Madrid. The elongated urban centre is lodged between the road and a railway track, watched over by the tower of the parish church that emerges amidst the rooftops. The image of the patron, the Virgen de la Estrella, is housed in a chapel, extolled in the recordings of Matías Prats, a famous reporter who was born in the town.
- This village is located in the east of the province, next to the Motorway of Andalusia.
- Distance from Córdoba: 52 Km.
- Altitude: 168 m.
- Surface area: 21.7 km2.
- Population: 7433. ·
- Term used to designate inhabitants: Villarenses.
- Region: Alto Guadalquivir.
After being conquered by Ferdinand III in approximately 1236, the locality was given the name of Aldea de Orabuena and became a dependency of the Council of Córdoba, which took charge of repopulation. In the middle of the 16th century, the name of the locality was changed to Aldea del Río, and in 1635 the toponym was changed, this time definitively, to Villa de Río, having been elevated to this status [villa: town/village] by Phillip IV. Certain historians have cited Villa del Río as the location of the Roman town of Ripa, although this is not documented.
