Valdepiélagos

Valdepiélagos is a municipality of the Community of Madrid, Spain. It received the title of villa (town) on 3 May 1801.

== Etymology == The origins of the word Valdepiélagos are obscure, nevertheless linguists and historians have proposed two different versions about this name: Valdepiélagos comes from the transposition of val (archaic short form of valle meaning valley), preposition de (of), and piélago (from Latin pelagus, sea), which is a poetic word to name a sea or ocean or, in a figurative sense (as it seems in this case) an abundance of waters. According to this theory, the meaning of Valdepiélagos would be valley of many waters. Valdepiélagos was also the place chosen by the ancient residents of nearby Talamanca de Jarama for laying the skins of animals under the sun in order to dry them before they could be further worked on. Thus, the name would consist of val + de + piel (which means skin in Spanish) + lagos (lakes, again in reference to the numerous currents and waters). This explanation is consistent with the local place names in the area, with towns often being named after the trade commodity they produced.