Alcañiz

Alcañiz municipality
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Aragon
Province :	Teruel
Comarca :	Bajo Aragon
Coordinates	41 ° 2 ′ N , 0 ° 7 ′ W Coordinates: 41 ° 2 ′ N , 0 ° 7 ′ W
Height :	381 msnm
Area :	472.1 km²
Residents :	15,947 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	33.78 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	44600
Municipality number ( INE ):	44013
administration
Mayor :	Amor Pascual ( Izquierda Unida )
Website :	www.alcaniz.es

Alcañiz is a city in the province of Teruel in the autonomous region of Aragon in Spain . The place is located on the Guadalope River 160 km northeast of the provincial capital Teruel and 105 km southeast of Saragossa .

history

The history of the place can be traced back to a Roman fortification above the meandering Guadalope. The area was initially reclaimed for the Christians in 1119 during the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors by King Alfonso I of Aragón . However, the Moors were finally driven out of the area under Alfonso II . This enfeoffed the knightly order of Calatrava with the castle .

After the death of King Martin I the year before, the “Parliament of Concord” met here in 1411. Delegates from different countries of the Crown of Aragón agreed on three people from Catalonia , three people from the Kingdom of Aragon and three people from the Kingdom of Valencia , who should determine who should succeed the late King Martin I. These nine people met in Caspe and there agreed ( compromise by Caspe ) on the Castilian Infante Ferdinand. Since Ferdinand I was elected as the new ruler of Aragon, Alcañiz has been labeled “Place of Unity”. In the first half of the 17th century Philip IV of Spain was supported in the fight against the Catalan secession movement, which gave Alcañiz city rights in 1652 .

After the invasion of Spain by France , Alcañiz was conquered in a bloody battle by the French, who then plundered and pillaged them. Attempts to recapture the city failed, and the French occupation could not be ended until 1813.

In 1838 armed conflicts broke out again during the Carlist War . Towards the end of the 19th century, a small upper class formed and as a result of the economic boom, the railroad reached Alcañiz in 1895.

During the Spanish Republic and at the beginning of the civil war , the city was a stronghold of the CNT . As part of the preparation for the Aragon offensive , Alcañiz was bombed by Franco's Italian air units at the beginning of March 1938 and after the area was conquered by the Spanish nationalists in the middle of the same month, the two airfields located outside the west were immediately used by the national air forces. In Puig Moreno, north of today's N 232, there were Spanish and Italian squadrons, the German Condor Legion used the La Salada square, west of the N 211.