Alagón (Zaragoza)

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Alagón municipality
Alagón - Church of San Pedro Apóstol
Alagón - Church of San Pedro Apóstol
coat of arms Map of Spain
Alagón coat of arms
Alagón (Saragossa) (Spain)
Finland road sign 311 (1994-2020) .svg
Basic data
Autonomous Community : Aragon
Province : Zaragoza
Comarca : Ribera Alta del Ebro
Coordinates 41 ° 46 ′  N , 1 ° 7 ′  W Coordinates: 41 ° 46 ′  N , 1 ° 7 ′  W
Height : 235  msnm
Area : 24.22 km²
Residents : 7,163 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density : 295.75 inhabitants / km²
Postal code : 50630
Municipality number  ( INE ): 50008

Alagón is a place and a northern Spanish municipality ( municipio ) with 7163 inhabitants (at January 1, 2019) in the province of Zaragoza the Autonomous Region of Aragon .

location

Alagón is located about 28 kilometers (driving distance) northwest of the provincial capital Saragossa at an altitude of about 235 meters above sea level. d. The lovely small town of Borja is located about 42 kilometers to the west. The Ebro , which flows past the town about two kilometers north , forms the northern municipal boundary in parts, while the Río Jalón flows through the municipality in the south and southwest.

Population development

year 1960 1970 1981 1991 2001 2011
Residents 5,334 5,181 5,086 5,522 5,620 7.153

In the middle of the 19th century, the population of Alagón was around 3,000 people. Since then, there has been an almost constant growth in the number of inhabitants, which has increased significantly again in recent years - due to the relative proximity to the greater Saragossa area and the significantly lower property prices in the countryside.

economy

For centuries the inhabitants of the place lived directly or indirectly (as traders or craftsmen) from agriculture. Viticulture played a major economic role in the 19th century until the outbreak of the phylloxera crisis . A sugar factory ( azucarera ) that still operates today and processes the sugar beets grown in the surrounding area began operations in 1900. Today agriculture is increasingly being replaced by smaller industrial and craft businesses in the village. An Opel plant was built in the neighboring municipality of Figueruelas .

history

In pre-Roman times the Celtiberian castrum of alum was located here , which had its own right to mint coins. In Roman times a road led from Saragossa ( Caesaraugusta ) to Astorga ( Asturica Augusta ) via Allabone , as the place was probably called at that time. So far, no finds have been made from the Visigothic period. The arrival of Islam in the Ebro valley happened in 714 - Allabone and Saragossa ( Madinat Saraqusta ) became part of Al-Andalus ; in October of the year 935 the caliph Abd ar-Rahman III. have stayed here. The Christian reconquest of the region by the Aragonese King Alfonso I happened in 1118, but the place did not experience its heyday until the 15th and 16th centuries. In the 18th century the Jesuits founded a college in Alagón. In 1808 Napoleonic troops took the place.

Church of San Pedro Apóstol - late Gothic altarpiece (around 1470)
San Antonio de Padua Church

Attractions

  • The Mudéjar-style church of San Pedro Apóstol , built entirely of brick , was started in the 13th century, but was not completed until the 15th century. The octagonal bell tower incorporates remains of the minaret of the former mosque in its lower and middle parts, as indicated by the diamond motifs and overlapping arches in the central area typical of the art of the Moors in the Maghreb and Andalusia . The two tooth-cut friezes in the lower area are also part of the Islamic collection. The two upper floors, on the other hand, show Gothic forms. The wreath of circumferential window openings below the eaves of the church building, which was added in the 17th century and which was used for security and defense purposes on the one hand, gives the building a representative, almost palatial appearance on the other. The single nave interior of the church is covered by a rib vault . A side chapel equipped with a star vault houses a late Gothic altar retable - probably of German origin - with a central carved wooden crucifix and a background painted on wooden panels with accompanying figures from around 1470. Further Renaissance and Baroque altars are located in the apse and in other side chapels.
  • The church of San Antonio de Padua is in the immediate vicinity of the former Jesuit college and was built around the same time as it in the 1730s. With the exception of the portal zone and some other building details, it is also made entirely of bricks. An octagonal baroque bell tower attachment closes in a multi-curved hood . Large parts of the interior fittings fell victim to a fire during the Spanish Civil War , but the church was repaired afterwards - for example, the main altar is a reconstruction of the burned original based on photographs.
  • In the former college building next to it, a museum with works of contemporary Mexican art was set up.
  • The Church of San Juan Bautista belonged to a convent of the Discalced Augustinians ( Augustinian recollects ). Today it serves as the church of a monastic community of the Claretian order founded in the 19th century .

Partner communities

Web links

Commons : Alagón  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).