Albalate de Zorita

Municipality of Albalate de Zorita
Albalate de Zorita - town view
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile-La Mancha
Province :	Guadalajara
Comarca :	La Alcarria
Coordinates	40 ° 19 ′  N , 2 ° 51 ′  W Coordinates: 40 ° 19 ′  N , 2 ° 51 ′  W
Height :	760  msnm
Area :	53.32 km²
Residents :	943 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	17.69 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	19208
Municipality number  ( INE ):	19006
administration
Website :	Albalate de Zorita

Albalate de Zorita is a place and a Spanish municipality ( municipio ) with 943 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the province of Guadalajara in the autonomous region of Castile-La Mancha . The municipality belongs to the sparsely populated region of the Serranía Celtibérica .

Location and climate

Almonacid de Zorita is located almost 760  m above sea level in the south of the Alcarria landscape in the north of the southern part of the Iberian plateau ( meseta ) . The provincial capital Guadalajara is a good 60 km (driving distance) in a north-westerly direction; the lovely town of Pastrana is a good 16 km north-west. The climate in winter is temperate, while in summer it is warm to hot; the rather low amounts of precipitation (approx. 435 mm / year) fall - with the exception of the almost rainless summer months - distributed over the whole year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2019
Residents	845	980	1,377	910	943

As a result of the mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the resulting loss of jobs, the population of the municipality has decreased significantly since the middle of the 20th century ( rural exodus ). The community also includes the new district of Nueva Sierra de Altomira with around 200 inhabitants .

economy

The people of earlier centuries lived mainly as self-sufficiency from agriculture and livestock farming , whose durable products (cheese, sausage, animal skins and wool) could be exchanged or sold at traveling traders.

history

Albalate de Zorita is a place of Arabic origin (Al-balate = "way"). In 1085 the area was occupied by the troops of King Alfonso VI. Recaptured by León ( reconquista ) and then repopulated ( repoblación ) with Christians from all parts of the Iberian Peninsula . In 1175 King Alfonso VIII of Castile handed the place into the hands of the Order of Calatrava . In the 16th century he came under the rule of the Prince of Éboli and his wife Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda , whose descendants resided there until the 19th century.

Attractions

Albalate de Zorita - Iglesia de San Andrés

• The three-aisled Iglesia de San Andrés was built in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The north portal shows a late Gothic - Isabelline decor; the interior is designed as a hall church with star vaults . The font dates from 1545; the churrigueresque main altar with its Solomonic columns is a work of the years 1703–1707. The church's greatest treasure is a golden crucifix from the 13th century that is almost 50 cm high and 28 cm wide .
• The Ermita de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios was built in the years 1655–1676.
• The Fuente de los Canos 13 is a first time mentioned wide mounted in 1557 wells, the same time as a cattle trough (Abrevadero) served. During a redesign in the 17th century, the number of pipes was reduced from the original 13 to just 8.

Surroundings

• The late Romanesque Ermita de Cubillas , located at the cemetery (cemeterio) approx. 1 km southwest of the village, has two short pointed arched stepped portals with decoration.

Web links

Commons : Albalate de Zorita  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Albalate de Zorita, tourism site - photos + information (Spanish)

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).
2. ↑ Albalate de Zorita - climate tables
3. ^ Albalate de Zorita - population development
4. ↑ Albalate de Zorita - Church
5. ↑ Albalate de Zorita - Ermita de Remedios
6. ↑ Albalate de Zorita - Fountain
7. ↑ Albalate de Zorita - Ermita de Cubillas