For other uses of this term, see Alfoz. Tower of the homage of the castle of Castrodouro in Alfoz (Lugo), locality mariñana that receives the name of the territory.

Alfoz was the name used during the Middle Ages in the Iberian Peninsula to refer to the geographical rural term that belongs to the council of the corresponding village. In the alfoz several villages or places are scattered. This set was under the jurisdiction of the town council. The town and its alfoz constituted thus a set called Community of Villa and Earth, with autonomy within the. The center of this community is the town (or city) composed of an urbanization and sometimes with a castle and even a wall.

The alfoces at the beginning of the 12th century were territories endowed with fiscal, judicial and military functions. In addition, they exercised a very important role in relation to silvo-pastoral communal uses until the year 1100 when the kings began to adjudicate the Church and the noble private jurisdictions with perpetual character; this fact threatened the reason of existing of the alfoces.

The word alfoz is derived from the Arabic al-hawz, meaning rural district. The alfoces next to the town to which they belonged formed what later took the name of municipality. His memory has remained in some place names of the Spanish geography. Bibliography

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